In the Comfort of the Cat : Book 1
by Irish Maiden16
Summary: After getting drugged by a high dose of Scarecrow's fear toxin in the Narrows, Batman finds himself in the presence of a beautiful stranger, at first he thinks she is just an delusion of his poisoned mind but when the effects ware off he soon realizes that she wasn't a dream. AU Batman Begins with Bruce meeting Selina Kyle for the first time.
1. Chapter 1 : Glimmers

**In the Comfort of the Cat**

**Disclaimer all Characters belong to Christopher Nolan and DC Comics  
**

* * *

**{Chapter 1 : Glimmers }**

The Gotham Arms Hotel, was the top list of decadence of the elite the plunder their wealth into the entrees of international cuisine and aged fermented wine shipped from the vineyards of Italy. A young attractive brunette, Selina Kyle walked elegantly towards the velvet station, her long auburn flecked hair cascaded down her back as a few young tenants roved their eyes over her black silk dress that hugged every curve of her body. She flashed with a seductive smile and gave quick wiggle with her hips.

She was the center of attention, basking to the bright lights, and scanning the rich twits and wives clad with fur coats. She was perfection of night, until a pair of LD headlights shifted all eyes away from her to a expensive Italian sports car. Her eyes flared at a sharp suited young man guiding the Lamborghini Murcielago into the semicircular driveway of Puccio's restaurant that occupied the top floor of the hotel. She watched his turn become to wide and the car's right tires went onto the curb knocking over a potted plant. He jolted to a stop at the valet's station.

A uniformed tenant opened the drivers side door, which flipped upwards and the handsome driver emerged as the cluster of reporters flashed their cameras shouting his name. "Over here, Bruce Wayne!"

"They really ought to make these drives wider," the young billionaire said.

"Yessir, Mr. Wayne," the attendant said admiring the silver sports car. "Nice car."

Bruce's lips curved into a smile. "You should see my _other_ one." he said under his breath and shifted his deep set gaze on a the beautiful woman in a black dress standing near the revolving doors of the restaurant. He flashed her a genuine smile and she rolled her eyes in response and slipped her slipped her slender body through the doors, as a elder couple walked out.

Another attendant opened the passengers door and two young European woman who called themselves Kiki and Sooze got out. They were petite, one short haired brunette and one long haired blonde, spiked heeled, and both were wearing very short floral -print cock tail dresses.

"Shall we, ladies?" Bruce coaxed. Both women giggled, Kiki took Bruce's left arm and Sooze took his right and the trio entered the building through the revolving door dedicated to Puccio's clientele, Bruce averted his eyes from the ladies and quickly glanced around for the alluring brunette before they went a modern glass elevator. They rode up to the fortieth floor and stepped into the glittering place of white linen, crystal and silver tableware, and the aroma of richly sauced dished blanketed the air. Floor-to -ceiling windows gave the diners a breathtaking view of downtown Gotham's City's millions of lights. A sculpted fountain with a pool at it's center ran along one side of the establishment. There was a low murmured of conversation and _plink_ of spoons and forks against china.

A tuxedo maitre d' led Bruce, Kiki and Sooze to William Earle's table, where dinner was already under way.

Bruce took a deep a breath and pulled on his snobby semblance of the spoiled brat, as he strode with the his hands touching the backsides of his dates, and caught a whiff an enchanting scent, he looked over his shoulder and found Selina sitting at a table sipping a glass of red wine while in a pleasant conversation with her date, she was one of the most beautiful creatures he had ever set his eyes on, the jealous part of him waited to sweep her off her feet and take her away from the lusty stare of silvery haired gentlemen. While the other part knew it would be a selfish act to lead a complete stranger as beautiful as she may be away from her date.

_Another time,_ Bruce thought looking directly at her dark eyes. _Another time._

As he walked away from the table, the woman raked her eyes over his body, surveying over every detail as he turned to the table of Earl and his four other people. She nip her bottom lip, as she stared into his well cut stone features groomed wavy chocolate hair, and shadows that sculpted around his eyes. "Bruce Wayne," she murmured setting her glass down, watching all eyes of other female diners look at the charismatic, magnetic and electric billionaire. He was a hybrid of a man who couldn't contain himself, she felt a purr of satisfaction vibrate against the walls of her throat.

Bruce smiled a hello as he and the two women sat down, listening to the animation of the conversation already in progress between an expensively dressed, middle-aged man and the much young woman who was obviously his wife. For several minutes, Bruce jointed the chitchat, which eventually turned to the crime situation in Gotham and the mysterious vigilante newly arrived in the city. Everyone except the young wife seemed to think that this masked do-gooder was a nutcase that belonged into a cell at Arkham.

"Well, he may be..._unorthodox_," the young wife said. "But at least he's getting something done."

"Bruce, help me out here," her husband said.

"A guy who dresses up like a bat clearly has issues," Bruce tapped his temple with a faint chuckle.

'But he put Falcone behind bars," the young wife protested.

"And now the cops are trying to bring _him_ in," the husband said. "What does that tell you?"

"They're jealous," she replied sweetly with a smile.

As Bruce and the other dinner guests conversed, Kiki and Sooze quietly left the table and headed to the fountain. The two woman slipped off their shoes and lowered themselves giggling, into the pool.

The horrified maitre d' hurried toward Bruce with irritation rattling in his brown eyes. "Sir the pool is for decoration only and...your friends do not have swimwear."

Bruce pursed his lips and gave a dumbfounded look, he turned and glanced at two women splashing in the water. "Well, they're European," he explained with a faint chuckle.

The maitre d' looked around, as though seeking help, and said. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave.:

Bruce nodded and took a checkbook from an inner pocket, uncapped a gold fountain pen and began writing his signature on a line.

"It's not a question of money," the maitre d' protested.

Bruce tore a check from the book and stuff into the maitre d's shirt. "You see I'm buying this hotel...and setting some new rules on the pool area." he flashed a smile and shifted his eyes to focus Selina who gave him a teasing smirk.

He expressed an irritating smirk, before he causally walked to the pool, as the waiter stared at the number zeroes on the check. Kiki and Sooze grabbed his jacket and pulled him in beside them.

Selina shook her head with annoyance and fixed her eyes on her date's golden Rolex and smiled, "Sorry to spoil this fun date, but I'm need elsewhere handsome."

Later, dressed in robes they had gotten from on the hotel's shops, their still drenched, Bruce, Kiki and Sooze presented themselves at the valet station.

"Bruce?" a familiar voice called.

Bruce turned around, revealing his boyish charm and then saw Rachel by the cab stand. She was wearing a black cocktail dress, her shoulders bar, and looked stunning.

"Rachel," Bruce said with a surprised voice.

"I heard you were back." Rachel looked at Bruce's white robe. "What are you doing:

"Just...swimming. Wow. It's good to see you."

"You were gone a long time." she reminded him.

"I know. How are things?"

Rachel sighed. "The same. The job's getting worse."

He smiled. "You can't change the world on your own."

"No. I guess not. But what choice do I have? You're to busy swimming." she smiled light looking deeply into his hazel-green eyes.

Bruce lowered his head and spoke in a near whisper. "Rachel. all this...it's not me. Inside, I am more." His eyes softened and lips formed into a firm line.

An attendant parked the Lamborghini at the curb.

"Come on, Brucie," Kiki called out impatient, stamping her foot. "We have more hotels for you to buy."

Bruce's eye fell as he watched Rachel's face become colder. She started to walk away. She stopped, looked back at him, and said. "Deep, deep down, you may still be the great kid you used to be...but it's not who you are underneath-it's what you do that defines you." She gave him a gentle smile, and he mirrored the same with a his eyes crisp and tender. "Have a good evening, Bruce."

He watched his childhood friend walk through the doors, as flashes of the limelight became captured over his drenched and still body and before he turned to Lamborghini, he saw Selina emerging elegantly out of the doors, his eyes locked to hers, and he felt himself experiencing an emotion that was foreign to him and before he could decode what it meant, he caught her red lips curve into a smile.

He nearly returned her with a genuine smile, and she paused for a moment and studied the details of his handsome face, bashed her lashes in a teasing manner and slipped away into a crowd of elderly gentlemen and women before he could chase after her.

His lips played into a disappointed sulk and he released a light rasp, "I'll find you."

* * *

The rain in Gotham was unforgiving to the damn souls that got lost into the sharp drops piercing against their soaked skin, clogging their pores and blurring vision. But for Selina , she didn't mind feeling the coldness of water drenching through her strands of dark auburn. She had become immune to feeling the high adrenaline rush in the fury storms that she faced while walking in between the cervices of the East End. A forsaken domain of criminality, murderers and ram shackled apartments belonging to drug dealers that ravaged the streets stealing off drugs that Carmine Falcone bought from the overseas Black Markets.

Her heels clicked on the glazed sidewalk, sharp dark coffee-colored eyes became alert to the movement in the shadows, her jaw was tense and mind anticipating for a midnight tango with a poor deranged to cross her path.

Suddenly she see's her prey, a grimy looked bearded pig that she recognized from earlier observations of the arrests of her few friends from Old Town, Detective Arnold Flass at a food stand under a canopy, she watched in disgust Flass rip out the Middle Eastern merchant , swiping a few bills from a plastic container. Shaking her head and scowling at the detective, Selina maneuvered to the entrance of an alley. Her nose crinkled at the rotten stench of litter and decay hit her senses hard.

Detective Flass walked by her, stuffing a felafel into his mouth, half chewed it and swallowed as he bowed his head against the pelting rain, she threw out her leg just at the right moment was about to trip him for payback of arresting a few young street girls who received mistreatment from assholes like him.

Suddenly something looped around him and was no longer on the pavement; she lifted her chin with wondrous brown eyes as he was been lifted by a wire. He stopped when his face was inched away from a black mask.

Selina blinked slightly, trying to adjust her focus on the crouched down figure holding the detective by the ankle, about forty feet above the concrete.

"This is going to be interesting," she said with a sly smirk.

"Where were the other drugs going?" Batman growled with fury into his piercing hazel eyes as he glared furiously at Flass.

Selina listened to a deep growl that made her eyes grow heavier and darker, as she felt a prickling sensation in her skin and with a shadow of a smirk she stepped closer, keeping to the umbra of the walls to fully get a view of looming black caped vigilante.

"I don't know," Flass gasped.

Batman released Flass and the cop dropped twenty feet. His screamed was lost in a crackle of grapple wire that looped around him halted his fall. Batman him back up and grabbed the curly strands of his receding headline.

"I never knew," Flass whispered. "Shipments went to some guy for a couple of days before they went to the dealers..."

Selina flattened her back against the wall, enjoying every moment of the cops interrogation.

"Why?" Batman's beastly growl echoed through the alley way.

"There was something else int he drugs, something hidden."

Batman's entire body trembled with rage. "What?"

"I don't know...I never went to the drop -off point. It's in the Narrows...cops only go there when they're in force."

_You're lying,_ she thought rolling her eyes. Her eyes were becoming in entranced by the shadowy semblance in a form or a man dressed like a giant black bat. Curiosity sparked through her veins as she listened to his fierce voice bellowed from a scowl.

"Do I look like cop?!"

"No!" Flass screamed.

Batman released his hold on Flass. Selina watched the porcine detective drop quickly and jerk to a sudden stop just inches from the ground. Then Batman gently lowered him to the ground, making Flass land on his evening snack and disappeared as a streak of lightening lit the whole area, leaving Flass speechless.

Selina strode to the bedazzled detective, crouched down with a prepared semblance of pity over her pale features.

"What the Hell do you want?" Flass grunted out, looking at the young brunette sliding her fingers down his pant leg. "Get off of me!"

"What wrong's detective, cat got your tongue?" she purred leaning her face closer to his ear. "We both know that you've been makings deals with the devil...and something tells me that you'll be getting your big fat reward."

She reached into his pocket and pulled out the cash that he stole from the merchant. "I think this doesn't belong to you." She smirked stuffing a bill into his jacket's collar and patted his chest. "Better luck next time, big boy."

Selina pulled herself away from his heated gaze, and sauntered quickly into the shadows as the alarm of a gold watch that she stole from the assistant manger at the Gotham Arms Hotel beeped. She lifted her wrist and looked at time.

12: 00 P.M.

"Midnight," she purred with a big red smile. "Perfect time to do little midnight madness."


	2. Chapter 2 : Demons in the Rain

**Chapter 2**

**Demons in the Rain**

* * *

Batman fought against the increased heavy downpour, pelting over shadowy crevices, as he entered the housing project grounds by climbing over a chained link fence and glided to one of the seven bleak, boxlike structures that were crammed with men, women and children- low income families that couldn't afford proper housing in the suburbs- only surviving in ramshackle, three bedroom apartments with leaky pipes, peeling paint, broken windows. He moved swiftly along the dark, treacherous corridors.

He caught the the bottom rung of a fire-escape ladder and began climbing. He halted at the forth-floor window and took from a golden compartment in his belt a viewer equipped with night- vision lens. He lay on his back below the window, blinking his eyes frantically as the water slashed over the slits of the cowl and angled the periscope to see into the dark apartment beyond. In the greenish tinge night lens he saw the devoid of life the apartment, the place was completely empty with only a few boxes and a large pile of stuff animal rabbits that he recalled seeing Falcone's men handling at the Gotham Docks.

From the apartment, he heard the disturbances of shouting and anger. He felt the vibrations of a door slammed shut, curiously spiked through his veins, he shifted his eyes only to stare a small boy moving somberly to the fire-escape platform. In the ambient light from inside the apartment, Batman could see that the boy was who looked to around eight, had a smear of grime across his forehead and what appeared to be a bruise on his cheek. His clothing was torn, his blonde hair unruly and falling in a cowlick over his brow.

The boy shifted his eyes and stared at directly at the masked vigilante before saying in a shaky voice. "It's you isn't." Batman turned his body slight, gloved fingers gripping the grove in the wall, as his eyes intense eyes focused on the child. "Everyone has been talking about you." The bellows of his raging father echoed in the air while his mother screamed in defense. He lowered his head with an ashamed look in his blue eyes. "The other kids won't believe me." he said.

Batman flicked his eyes down and threw the viewer to the boy. "It's yours." He growled in a low disguised baritone. Before the grateful boy could thank him, he lifted the window to the empty apartment and climbed inside. A stomach churning stench hit his nostrils as he stepped forward, his eyes scanned the corners of the room. He stopped and gazed at a lifeless body of a Arkham security guard with glazed yellow eyes. Inside the Kevlar suit, Bruce was trying to ease until the rising bile creeping up his throat. He suppressed the urge the emptying the contents of his stomach, and silently moved to the pile of stuffed animals.

He took one of the stuffed rabbits from the pile. Observed the opened material. As he examined the package of white powder inside the cotton stuffing, there was a sudden noise at the door. He reacted quickly and melted back into the shadows near the window.

The door opened, and in the faint glow of the hallway, Batman saw Doctor Johnathan Crane and two other men enter.

Crane pointed to the pile of stuffed rabbits. "Can rid of all traces." he ordered looking at the body. " I want nothing left for the police."

"Better torch the whole place," one of the men said. He took a bottle of amber liquid from a coat pocket and started to pour it over the toys. The air was suddenly filled with the pungent odor of gasoline. Crane moved to the opened window and looked out down at the floor. He noticed puddle of water seeping through the cracks, and with a devilish sneer he bought his cold blue eyes to the fire-escape. Batman rose from the floor behind him, completely invisible to his eyes as the massive shadow moved stealthily toward another corner of the apartment.

"Wait a minute," the man with the gasoline said said. "I gotta take a leak."

He went into the bathroom, flicked up the grimy switch making the dimming bulb light up the small space and glanced into the cracked mirror over the wash basin. He caught a glimpse of a dark shape, his mouth opened to yell-

Batman smashed his face into the mirror and as he was bumping against the basin and falling to the floor, Batman was already moving to the bathroom door. There he took out the second men holding a lighter, twisting the thug's arm and listened to a yelp of pain pierce into the air. He pitched the man's neck and dropped him to the floor.

_Two down,_ Bruce thought shoving past the unconscious man to confront Crane, who had donned a burlap mask. _One more to take out_. He was unaware of his opponent, unfocused as Crane raised his hand and a tiny cloud of white smoke puffed from his sleeve. Instinctively, Batman turned his head to avoid inhaling the it and leaped at Crane. There was a second puff of smoke and this time Batman breathed part of it in and choked..._  
_

_...and the Batman who was Bruce who was a child as the bottom of the wall was not looking at a devilish man in a scarecrow mask, oh on, not now, not anymore- he was seeing a monster coughed up from the bowels of hell with flaming eyes and long constricting tentacles reaching over his small form...  
_

"Get away from me!" Was that his voice, yelling like that?

Batman staggered, shook his head. His eyes were blurring with vivid images of bats and maggots crawling out of the demon's mouth. His cheeks felt flushed, bloated and his bones stiffened as he crashed into a shelf, trashing his arms.

"Having trouble seeing," the nefarious voice muffled from under the mask. Crane's eyes gleamed with wicked delight as he watched his victim's body jerk. He smashed a bottle over Batman's head. "You look like a guy who take himself seriously."

Amber liquid seeped into over his exposed chin and reeking stench of gasoline burned his nostrils. Batman gasped a heaving breath and coughed.

_...the gasoline stink congealed into another hell spawned monster with gaping jaws..._

Batman shifted his dimming eyes to the window. His heart was drumming in his chest as he knew that salvation lay outside, in the cool air , in the rain. If only he could get to the window. The window should be easy to reach. The window was only a few steps away.

._..but the room was suddenly miles long ans the window displaying consumes flames with charred bones of lifeless bodies dangling on sting. He saw a pale faced demon with marred lips and black soulless eyes laughing at him as chains began to bound his body...and drag into the dark crevices with bats exploding everywhere...  
_

Crane was holding up a cheap plastic lighter and narrowed his merciless eyes to Batman. "You want my option," he inquired pleasantly, and flicked the wheel. "You need to lighten up." When the tapered flamed sprouted from the top of lighter, he toss it at Batman.

Gasoline ignited and Batman was swathed in fire.

The window!

_...no matter how far away it is, I gotta reach the window..._

Batman closed his eyes and flung himself at where he knew that window had to be. He felt something crack and heard glass breaking underneath his boots and knew was on the fire escape. His momentum carried him forward and he flipped over the railing and, cape trailing in flame, he fell into the rain. He pressed a stud in his cowl and the memory cloth popped opened and became rigid- a wing. No, only half a wing; the fire had damaged the other side. Still blazing, he spiraled out and down, the damaged part of wing flapping-

His fall was broken by a car. As his flaming body struck the vehicle, he fell through and into the rear of the car. The heavy rain had extinguished the flames. He lay, gasping for breath, mentally scanning his body, seeking broken bones and visible inflictions. He detected none. He rocked his body and worked his way out of the wreckage of the car and struggled to regain his balance.

He bent his head down and unleashed yellow tinge bile from his stomach. He slammed his eyes, feeling the shivers surge through his blood stream as he limped into an alley and trembled into a trash can releasing a loud grunt of distress. His shaky hand reached from his grapple gun, and fired the wire to the edge of a tin roof, and pressed the button in the center of his belt. Within moments, he ascend with rapid speed into the air and rammed his torso into the roof's edge. He used all the strength in his arms and pulled his weakening body up.

Gritting his teeth, he finally managed to slide his stomach on the tin, and roll onto his back. From memory, he took up a tiny mobile phone. He pressed a button, and in a hoarse whisper, "Alfred?" he screamed to feel his brain swelling in his skull. "Help me!"

* * *

The pulse of her heart echoed against the gray walls of her soul, Selina flipped her night vision goggles 360 degrees over drenched straighten auburn and grasped the night as if it was freely given to her. She moved within the shadows, alert and confident. Sharp coffee- colored eyes captured the orange gleam of the street lamps piercing through the wall of pelting rain. She flitted across rooftops, heels clicking against the glazed cement of her deemed territory as feline eyes gaze upon from the dark umbra of littered alleys.

She was half way home now, clutching a nightly spoil that contained enough stone cut diamonds to finance an escape out of Gotham, and away from her lurking demons. She stepped onto the parapet, eyes narrowing at the misty corridors of the Narrows, below and as she prepared for another jump across a roof she fought against a wayward thought of tall, dark and menacing creature that clouded clever mind in that moment of pure adrenaline rush.

Selina leaped into the rain, landed on her stilettos and a prideful smirk stretched across her full red lips. Before she regained her selfish desires of tasting the splurges of freedom and sink her claws into the collections of fine jewelry, she felt a haunting sensation crept through her bones.

Quickly her defenses rose, gloved hand slid down her shapely thigh as fingers grasped the cold steel of her weapon assault. The faint glow of light covered the alley way across, she peered down with curiously as a shadowy form of danger and magnificence staggering to his feet, banging his bulky frame into the wall and slashing his arms violently into the air.

"What the hell is wrong with him?" she murmured into the soggy air, watching him tumble to into the litter of decaying wrappers, beer bottles and soaked clothing. Her gloved fingers gripped the ledge, as he heard his abysmal cries break through the distant rolls of the thunder. She swallowed for empathy harshly, and shuttered has he screamed in agony. Her teeth nipped her bottom lip. Mind clotted with thoughts. _One, I can leave him for the police and go home. Two, I can investigate the situation, and three, I can help him._

When she made up her mind, she curved her lips in a fierce scowl. "I'm going to regret this." she muttered and vaulted off the roof, using her feline grace to land perfectly on her heels. She raced to the alley way, her heart flip-flopping as he released discernible soft cries into the shadows. She stopped momentarily, wanting to gag at the engulfing scent of charred Kevlar and bile dripping out of his quivering lips.

She gingerly sauntered closer and crouched down beside him. "Easy handsome," her voice was low; she placed her hand on his elevating chest. "Looks like you had a rough night."

Batman's tongue curled as he muffled out raw words. "Blood...poison...poisonous...blood." His eyes were fluttering behind the mask and beads of sweat rolled over his lips." Bats," he screamed, clutching her shoulder with a firm grip. He was spewing up more bile as it seeped from the sharp edges of his mouth.

Selina scoffed the yelled liquid with disgust, leaned over him and grasped his shoulders, applying, pressuring and hoping that she would snap him out of the delusions. She looked steady into behind the slits and into the irises of hazel as she stilled him momentarily, he placed his hand on her cheek.

"Who are you?" he managed to breathlessly ask. He looked steady into her dark eyes.

She was hesitant to respond and rubbed the bile off his exposed chin with her finger. "Relax," she calmly said feeling the shudders wracking him full force as he groaned loudly. "I'm..." She fought against the reluctance building in her throat. "I'm here." She wrapped her arms around him, shielding his body from the icy rain, resting her head on his chest as she listened to his heart beat, gently whispering on underneath his jaw while inwardly praying that this masked stranger she now held her grasp would awake from his nightmarish ailment before the hour ended.

When she felt him fading into an unconscious state as his head turned side to side, she lifted her head and noticed a door left ajar inches away from them. She wiped the excess water off her face, and straightened herself off him, before moving to the door, with a quick inspection she walked back to the limp body of Batman.

"Hey," she tapped her finger on the cowl. "I found a dry spot. I need you to get your ass up and focus."

His eyes popped opened, alert as he regained some state of consciousness. He lifted slowly up, and she wrapped her arm around him for support. Carefully, she guided him into the dark apartment and eased him down to the floor. His heavy eyelids blinked as he adjusted his focus on her face and whispered. "You're beautiful."

She smirked at this, before saying, "And you're delusional."

He closed his eyes as his senses were clogged with the toxin, and he shivered feeling his blood running cold; lips started to move rapidly and mumble out his consuming dread-rendering the rest of his body useless. Seeming to sense his discomfort, and feeling none threatened by his presence, she gently undid his cloak, and pulled it over his body, then she did something uncharacteristic of her guarded emotions. She adjusted her body to his side and lowered her back flat against the floor, she took off her gloves and caressed his feverish chin with her soft hands, at the same time angled his head into a comforting position as she peered at the etched of his character in cowl.

"Who is the man behind the mask?" she questioned in calm and firm voice, that became against his will. His eyes slipped opened lightly and then closed as his mind was becoming lost inside a grove of his mortal fears and demons of the darkness. She turned on her side and pressed her heated body into his cold form before she cautiously placed her hands firmly on each side his cowl and gulped down.

Selina felt her red lips curl into a satisfied smile, and she slowly discarded the mask gently off his face.


	3. Chapter 3 : Starve a Fever

**Chapter 3 **

**Starve a Fever**

* * *

_His face**. **_Selina felt her eyes widened and she took a few steps back from the dormant body of the unmasked vigilante. She held the cowl in her fingers tightly and fought against the confusion that flowed within her. She narrowed her eyes to the hollow shell of graphite and that knew one or two things were true- either someone had placed the young billionaire playboy in the same costume as the masked defender, or Gotham prince was a man who had a serious issue complex.

She furrowed her eyebrows and she face betrayed her emotions with shock. She surveyed her dark unsettling gaze over the sweat-slacken face that was reclined before her. He looked young and full of aggression, and unbearably handsome as always. He wore dark makeup over his marquise shaped eyes that were hooded with deep shadow, and his hair was chocolate-brown with depth and drenched richness as tendrils hung loosely over his twitching eyes. She moved her eyes to his moist lips and watched them protrude as indents formed around the edges of his mouth, and after finally absorbing his entire appearance, she managed with a low voice, "Bruce Wayne."

Bruce parted his lips and released a high pitch scream into the air. "No," his voice strangled. "Get away from me!" He started to thrash his arms. Sweat was glazing his broad forehead. She listened to the tender cries as the pierced from his trembling lips. Feverish discomfort was etched on his refined features, nightmares recessed of his mind torturing him with his mortal dread as he fought against the heaviness of the toxin that clouded all his thoughts. He mumbled incoherent words as he searched for an escape. "Help me!" his voice was faltering, he was disturbed by intense waves of anxiety. His waxed sallow brow furrowed and his eyes flickered opened, he raised his hand and tried to grasp something, then closed his eyes as he started to quake with febrile chills that mixed with the churning of his tart stomach.

Selina settled the cowl down on a work bench, she could feel her heart pounding against the walls of her chest. She let out a few deep exhales to calm herself down before gingerly stepping forward to him. He was still thrashing around violently, his chalk colored lips moving rapidly but she couldn't make out what he was saying through the bellows and sobs he was unleashing from the depths of his throat. She had been in this type of difficult situation before, when an old friend of the past was drugged with a high overdose of ecstasy. She knew that the only way to keep him alive was by waking him out of the delusional state and let the poison flush out of his body with a natural detox. She watched his hands ball into fists, he moved from side to side, his bulky frame shaking from whatever he was pulling himself out from, his whimpering cries made her break down.

She gingerly knelt down beside him, and leaned forward with her hands grasping his shoulders. She was applying gentle pressure with hope that she could snap him out it. Her touched seemed to still him momentarily until Bruce jerked in a violent attack and pushed her off of him, making her roll onto her floor.

"Help me!" he wailed out with a fearful tone. "Alfred, help me."

Selina bolted upright and rubbed her bruised forehead. She watched him convulse as the scent of foul perspiration seeped out of his pores and hit her nose. She knitted her eyebrows. "Think," she mumbled under her breath and watched his body shudder.

Bruce slipped his eyes open and stared at his hands that were starting to swell up. He was breathing in air that was thick as cotton. He gasped in horror as he watched his fingers starting to deform into inky black claws of a monster. "No...I'm not a monster!" He rolled onto his chest and started to whimper loudly as his gloved fingers dug into the cracks of the floor. Selina placed her hand on his back feeling the wet noxex armor through her finger tips.

"Snap out of it, handsome," she whispered and wrapped her arms around his hips. She flipped him out until she tumbled over his elevating torso. Faced with no choice, she flattened her body against his frame making her brow touching his as she watched his eyes roll back. All she saw was white fog in his pupils. "No," she gasped instantly shooting up and covering her mouth her hands. She lowered her back down until her whole frame was curled against his side and allowed her hand to fall to his rising chest. She pressed her ear over the insgina of the bat and listened to the his heart beat.

"What can I do to bring you back?" she calmly whispered to him and arched her back slight upwards. She tucked her hand at the nape of his neck, feeling his sweat-soaked hair seep through her lengthy gloves. She became entranced by his quivering thin upper lip. He was gorgeous. She ran her thumb cross his lips. "I know you're stronger than this, handsome." She pressed her brow against his and felt the scorching heat of the fever he was fighting.

"Listen to my voice...I can make the nightmare go way." Selina swallowed and pulled off her glove. She placed her cold hand on his feverish skin and the same time adjusted her crooked arm to elevate his neck into a comfort postilion from the dusty floor as she hovered over him. "Focus on my voice." She felt his pulse accelerating and used all her strength and shook his body. "You're going to wake up." she shouted at him. "I'm not going give up on you."

With that, she lowered her head down and nuzzled her face against his flushed knife-edged cheek. His head turned aside and she angled it back so that he could look straight up into her eyes as her nose aligned with his thin aquiline nose. She felt his eyelids flutter against her skin. "Come on, fight it." She pulled away as she delicately brushed his hair back off of his forehead. The lazy patterns swirled on the indents of his brow, fingertips caressed his over his curvatures with soothing pressure. "I'm not going to lose you, Bruce Wayne." she said with firm determination in her voice and heard the swallow breaths piercing from his lips.

Then she felt it, the last beats of his stilling heart.

"No," she screamed lifting his limp head to the center of her breasts as she felt own heart sinking lower. She rocked him gently. "My mother used to read my unrealistic stories." she paused. "I remember one story about a princess that was under a damn curse and only a kiss could break the spell." She eased his head back down to the floor and narrowed her eyes down to his lips. "I only like being realistic but I'll give it my best shot." She bought her lips a fraction closer to his and felt the ghostly breath chill over her. She framed his face with her hands and invaded his space with a soft and nourishing kiss.

Bruce gasped with a jolt and she instantly broke her lips away. He opened his eyes slowly and started at in her dark one as they both locked tender gazes to each other. He lifted up his hand and run his rubberized fingers through the straighten strands of auburn and he wrapped his gauntlet covered arms around her slender back and pulled her close as he pressed a kiss on her lips. She closed her eyes and felt the soft cold caress of his lips getting warmer, when he deepened further into the kiss, she allowed him, both of them were shivering as their tongues danced inside their mouths.

Selina wrapped her arms around his overs as he lifted his back off the floor and pressed her tighter against him. She dared herself to opened her eyes once to catch the sight of his face before slipping them shut with a faint smile crossed over her lips and she melted into his embrace.

He fell into unconscious state, his lips were still pressed on hers.

She pulled away. "It worked," she said with a shadowy smirk and kissed him one more time as she gently lowered his head back down onto the floor.

Bruce opened his eyes once more and stared into her dark-coffee colored eyes as the waves of the hellish nightmares faded into a dream. He rolled them both over and kissed her passionate as the toxin effects were slightly decreasing in his system. He pulled his lips away and looked into her beauty before saying with a hoarse whisper, "You're so beautiful." he placed his shaky hand on her pale cheek and draw her back to his lips, and this time she responded with wide smile. He closed his eyes and she pressed a soft kiss on his brow before slipping off his body. She narrowed her eyes to his utility belt and looked at the ignition key of the Tumbler sticking out from a half-opened compartment of the belt.

Selina felt her lips curve into a dangerous grin. "I wonder if he drives a stick shift?"


	4. Chapter 4 : Designated Driver

**Chapter 4 **

**Designated Driver **

* * *

The eerie sound of police sirens echoed through the streets, Selina flatted her back against the wall, her eyes narrowed to the unconscious billionaire sprawled over the cape and listened to the heavy pants of breath in to the air. His entire frame was shivering with feverish chills.

"How am I going to lift his ass?" she murmured under her breath and started to analyzed the delicate details of removing his limp body out of the apartment. She noticed that his complexion was turning into the color of vanilla pudding, and she watched him move side to side, as milky liquid dripped out of his quivering lips and rolled over the dark mole above his Adam's Apple.

"Blood poisoned..." Bruce choked out with slurry mumble. "Take poison... sample...blood."

She sauntered from the wall and crouched down beside him. She placed her hand on his sweat dotted brow and felt his body temperature increasing. Her eyes raked over his bulky frame as she guessed the weight his body mass that seemed to be roughly 220 pounds of pure muscle. She wrapped her arms around his waist and slowly hoisted him up and off the floor. His brow bumped into hers knocking her head back slightly. She gritted her teeth and shake off the sudden throb of pain forming in her skull.

Bruce fell back pulling her tangled body down with him. Her wild mass of hair fanned across his chest and legs were draped possessively over his legs. She reeled up, and brushed the dangling bangs out of her eyes as she regarded him momentarily to release a frustration breath. Her brow furrowed as more white liquid was seeping over his livid features.

Selina wiped away the watery substance off his lips with her sleeve and watched him drift and out of his unconscious state, she was hovering over him. She had realized that whatever poison was in his symptom could only be flushed out of his bloodstream with proper medical experience. She lowered herself down and pressed her cheek against his ice-cold jaw.

"Stay with me, handsome." she said with a low voice against his skin. She arched up and lifted his arms over his head as her arm snaked over his Kevlar torso. She pulled him into a sitting position until her arm moved down to his back and she supported his weight. She lifted him to his feet, and as soon as he was upright she felt his knees buckling down and she let out a gasp of pain as her muscles felt like they were tearing underneath her skin-tight suit.

Feeling a pull in her triceps, she turned her narrowed her gaze to the direction of the door. Slowly with calculated movements guided him out of the complex and into the alleyway. The rain was becoming more violent as she gently leaned him against the wall, his drenched hair rubbed against the brick squares. "Don't move, Mr. Wayne." she whispered, her dark eyes scanned over the narrow space. Her hyberware senses spiked instantly as voice wafted from the street. She quickly pulled the cape over his face and made him become invisible into the shadows that concealed their bodies. She heard his groaning underneath the cape and quickly disregarded off like a magician would for the final stage of an disappearing act.

She looked tenderly at him and cupped her gloved hand under his slightly rounded chin, noticing that his ashen jagged cheeks were becoming bloated with water retention. She shifted her eyes to the alleyway across from them and saw a massive tank- like vehicle parked behind a chain linked fence surrounded by the boxlike structures and bent trash dumpsters. "Cool ride," she lightly purred before bringing back her gaze to his face.

Bruce flickered his eyes, as he wrapped his around her slender waist and pressed her tightly against him, his dark eyes were merely inches from hers. At first she reacted with heated annoyance, but when she watched the corners of his mouth turn slight up at the pronounced edges as he bought his lips closer, not even fully awake. She gave him a shadowy glare and contorted her body from his constricting grasp.

"Delusional bastard," she hissed as she leaned slight back and away from him, clenching her jaw.

He parted his chalk-colored lips trying to say something, but gingerly reached a hand out to her, a look of slight confusion shrouded over his face. Selina quickly took two steps back, heart racing as she noticed his eyes slipping open just enough to reveal foggy hazel as he carefully moved from the wall. He winced as the droplets of rain splashed over him, a sensation of coldness and relief. Still. he kept his unbroken gaze locked onto her, as he carefully took a few steps forward and then reached out to her.

"You..." he whispered hoarsely, his trembling gloved finger tips hovering close to the smooth skin underneath her domino mask. She felt his him even through he didn't physically touch her. "You're so.." He gasped out letting a heavy pause linger into the rain and then exhaled a wispy breath she had literary felt him fighting to release. "Beautiful."

Selina bit her lip,she was unprepared for that confession. Unprepared to allow her guard emotions to seep out of her feline poise. Unprepared for this delusional prince of Gotham, to be so damn aware of her presence. She narrowed her eyes down at the ignition key clutched in her hand. She noticed the GPS tracking device was starting blink red as she held it to the direction of the sidewalk, compacting her thoughts of her next move to ensure that Bruce Wayne would survive when the dawn would rise over the city.

"Still breathing, handsome?" she asked tilting her head and regarded with a weariness infused within her eyes as he stumbled back to the wall. She responded quickly and lunged forward to him. She swiped her arms around him as his chin rested on her shoulder. Her eyes narrowed the mixture of blood and the contents of the toxin pouring out from his throat. Her emotions were betraying. Her own façade was stripping off.

Bruce lifted his head, clenched his eyes as he watched her fight the emotion through the haze white fog that clouded his mind. He knitted his eyebrows with an unsure look piercing back at her as he tired to blink away the tendrils hanging over his eyes. She was trying to her distance even through they kissed with unexplained passion, in those harsh moments of life and death. Maybe she was dream. A delusion from Scarecrows fear toxin. His head started to throb, he felt sick to his stomach.

"Beautiful...who are you?"

His lisp toned voice was thick like cotton as he asked his multilayered question, she rolled her eyes.

"Someone that's saving your ass, Mr. Wayne." she shot back pulling away from him. She looked down at the cape and bent down, pulling off her thigh-boot and using the sharp-edged stiletto heel to cut through the memory cloth as she created a makeshift mask from him. She quickly shot back up and pulled the fabric over his face.

Selina guided him through the alley with her hand pressing his back. "This is how it's going to work once we get out on the sidewalk. When I say walk, you walk. When I stop, you stop. We afford your sorry ass to be discovered by a few drunks. Just follow my voice. And leave everything to me. Got it, handsome?" she asked, watching his head slight nod under the mask.

She pushed him gently to the sidewalk, quickly her elusive gaze scanned the street for any traffic. When she felt that the coast was clear, she took him by the hand, feeling his fingers squeeze with hers and guided him across the street. When they were safe in the alley, she pressed his body against the wall. "Be right back," she said before vaulting over the fence with feline grace and agility. Her heels smacked the glazed pavement and she gingerly moved to the Tumbler.

Pressing her thumb the bottom on the ignition key. the canopy roof hissed as it slid open. Selina climbed inside and slid her lithe body onto drivers seat and the roof slid close. "What no seat belts?"her voice played out. She put her hands on the steering wheel, tried the pedals with her boots, scanned her eyes over the dozen of high-tech buttons on the dashboard. "Interesting." She had no idea what most of these buttons, levers and dials were for, but basic operation of an expensive..._car?-_that seemed conventional enough.

Her gloves guided over wheel, until she felt the key on the steering column, like just the stolen cars she hot wired. She smirked and placed the ignition key into the keyhole, give it a twist-

The powerful engine roared to life.

Selina locked her eyes on the fence, lips curved into a devilish smirk. "Let's see what this baby can do?" She purred, depressing the clutch and ran the stick through its carious positions. Six gears into reverse. She smiled feeling the power of the turbine engine rattle through her bones. She shifted into first and released the clutch-the enormous rear tires began to spine and smoke but the Tumbler didn't move. She rolled her eyes, and pushed the clutch again as a thought of the front wheels being locked filtered her mind. She narrowed her eyes to the dashboard, there had to be a release brake handle. She groped over the dashboard and fingers gripped something sharp and large. She tugged and pushed and -she was crashing through the fence listening the metal scraping against the black frame of the vehicle.

Selina's dark eyes gleamed as she marveled at the vehicle's power and said, "Simple. Deadly. Efficient. My kind of ride." She drove the Tumbler a few inches from Bruce, and opened the roof. She climbed out and dragged him with all her strength to the passengers seat. He made sure he was in a comfort position and then climbed over him, her heel digging into his thigh but it didn't seem to faze him. When she settled back into the driver's seat, the roof shut above them and she turned to look at her unconscious passenger. "Buckle up, Mr. Wayne." she said, pressing the GPS screen that displayed the previous destination. Wayne Manor.

A few seconds after she pushed the clutch back, the Tumbler floored away from the alley. Behind the wheel, Selina grinned and gunned the engine.

* * *

Inside the black Rolls Royce, Alfred Pennyworth looked at this haggard and distressed complexion through the rear view mirror, he stopped at a red traffic light and swiped the sweat off this wrinkled brow with the back of his hand. His wintery blue eyes narrowed to the tracking device that displayed Bruce's current location for pick up was resting on the dashboard. His shaky leather gloved hands gripped the edges of the steering wheel as he felt a constricting knot of dread building in his throat. He instantly gulped down and regained his courage as the light switched to the green. He let a deep exhale and continued to the drive through the nightly traffic.

"Hang on, Master Wayne." His voice muttered as he noticed Gotham squad cruisers zooming passed him with their red and blue LD lights reflecting in store front windows. A few seconds later, a pair of bright headlights lit the street and Alfred heard the low _thrum_ of a powerful engine. The headlights were getting closer and something massive and black was speeding to his position. It was picking up speed as it rammed a few parked vehicles. He cringed slightly listening to the screeches of metal doors engulf his ear drums. When the vehicle passed Alfred, heading for the overpass, his eyes grew wide as they beheld the large wheels of the Tumbler.

"Bloody hell," he cursed while doing a quick wheel swerve onto the curb. He shook his head with bewilderment as the Wayne Enterprises prototype bridging vehicle closing in a police cruiser blocking the exit ramp of the overpass, Alfred cringed once more, waiting for the disaster because whatever blood poison his young master was fighting against-did not make the Tumbler slow-no, it was accelerating with speed. An ugly, life-taking collision seemed inevitable.

Two patrol cops dropped their steaming cups of coffee and scrambled from the cruiser. Alfred watched the officers bail out into the street.

The Tumbler smashed into the cop's car, pancaking the hood with its huge front wheels crushing the vehicle and bouncing toward to the ramp.

He shook his head and spoke. "He's a better driver than that," his voice ejected with a hint of concern, watching the Tumbler jump onto the ramp and disappear through the horn blaring traffic.


	5. Chapter 5 : Awakening to the Dream

**Chapter 5**

**Awakening to the Dream**

* * *

The next several minutes passed with rapid speed. Selina was zipping down the freeway, pushing incoming traffic into the cement barriers, she could feel her heart flutter against her chest. Adrenaline was gushing through her veins as she kept her dark eyes locked on the roads. Everything was becoming like a blur to her. The annoyance of the sirens of GCPD squad cars kept her mind in focus on the situation. "Sorry boys," she gritted staring at a barricade of cars forming on the exit land. "I'm in no mood to play tonight."

She pulled a laver into gearshift. The Tumbler shifted into a formal driving. The vehicle lifted high into the air and flew over the parked cars. It landed on the road with a jolt. But the massive wheels held. She glanced over at the global positioning screen. "Okay," she muttered, looking at the layout of a green tinged map. She scowling lightly as the bright light of a patrolling helicopter shone for them. She listened to the navigation gear telling her the nearest exit ramp was a few miles south.

With a chopper still tagging her down, Selina huffed out a breath of frustration. As long as she stayed on the freeway, the chopper would follow her. She sunk her teeth into her bottom lip, and shifted her eyes to glance at the limp billionaire moving side to side in the seat. His skin was changing into the hue of ghost-white and stench of stomach churning sweat pouring out of him made her feel uneasy.

"Hold on, Mr. Wayne." she said with a soothing tone. 'Just hold on."

The warning signs seemed to race pass them: the freeway was still under construction and the pavement ended less than a mile. There were no lights, the electrical wiring had been extend this far out yet. Selina gunned the engine. The Tumbler smashed through wooden barriers and down into the clearing below, the veered onto a elevated road. She didn't care up the chopper. Her main concern at the moment was saving Bruce Wayne's life. She did a quick scan her with her eyes over the dashboard and found the button the killed the exterior lights. The windshield instantly tinted to night-vision green.

Selina felt her lips curl into a smirk. "My kind of ride," she purred, tapping her long finger on a control on the screen, which converted into a camera, giving her the full view of the polices cars speeding toward her.

"Get off my ass!" she growled, feeling the engines revert into stealth mode. The turbines made no sound as the Tumbler sped silently away from the traffic. The chopper above hovered and descended, its searchlight probing the area under the road. It moved forward in the opposite direction of the Tumbler.

Within minutes, the Tumbler lurched forward and flew over the edge of the lookout, over the river gorge, straightening into a waterfall. "What the hell?" she snarled, looking at the rocky cut off ahead. "Never trust technology." She clenched her eyes embracing for impact. The vehicle splashed through the waterfall to the stone floor of the cave. Steel hooks sprang from its rear chassis and engaged a cable. The Tumbler stopped.

Selina took a few seconds to regain her composure. "Not a bad drive," she said, but Bruce didn't hear her, he was trapped into a mindless state. The canopy of the Tumbler hissed open and slid forward, and the seats rose up to allow Selina to exit out of the vehicle.

She slid down, heels clicked on the sleek stone and sauntered to the other side. She swiped the back of her head over her sweat-dotted brow and stared at Bruce's body trembling. He was slowly heading into catatonic state. She moved to the passengers side, behind the mask, her emotions were betraying her as he watched him drift in and out of conscious. She removed her long elbow length glove and gently placed the palm of her hand on his clammy brow. Carefully, she wrapped her arms around him and lifted him out of the seat. She dragged him to the stone floor, his chin fell to his chest and arms hung loosely down.

Selina rolled her eyes around the cave. "Nice place you got here," she teased, hoping he would hear her voice and reply back. "I can see you take the whole bat thing seriously." She raised her chin and stared at the bats rustling their wings above. Finally, she spotted a medical table filled with access surgical equipment and gauze. With a hasty movement, she gained fierce momentum and dragged his body to the table.

She hoisted him up against the stainless steel. His head fell back as she lifted his legs and swung them over the edge of the table. She took a few steps back and then brushed her fingers over his brow with circular movement.

"Come on handsome," she said almost with an almost pleading tone. "Pull out of this, Wayne." She was hovering over him, lips grazing over his sweat-slacked brow as began to feel his eyelids flutter against her neck. She pulled herself back and delicately brushed away the drenched strands of chocolate off his forehead.

Selina gently applied a soothing touch on his feverish skin with her cool finger tips that bought comfort back into him, allowing him fight off the intense effects of the toxin and slowly break through the walls of his torment and step back into a safe haven. "You need to come back," he heard her voice say as it sounded closer. "I know your fighting this out. You need to fight harder. You need to wake up. I'm not leaving until you do."

As she stood by his side it seemed like eternity, she gently rubbed her finger over his clasped lips -studying the curvatures of his ashen face- his razor edge cheek bones, the indents of his broad forehead, the fine edges of his luscious mouth. She watched his eyes twitch as his body started to stir and lips part as he released hot breath into the dampness of the air. Yes, he was slowly awakening.

* * *

_He was falling. Falling forever into the darken abyss. The eerie sounds of the fluttering creatures screeching made his ear drums grew numb. He landed on his arm, twisting his elbow as anxiety flowed through his small body. His eyes scanned over the rocky crevices as the water dripped through the cracks. His heart was pounding. Freckled skin quaking. He clenched his eyes shut and released a few deep breaths. Wishing the nightmares would go away. Wishing he would escape from the horrors were coming closer to him.  
_

_He swallowed his fear and tried to regain childhood courage. He was frozen in the darkness. He felt the rising torment beginning to bubble within him. He opened his eyes and tried and stared up at the rays of sunlight gleaming over him. It was his only hope to withstand the nightmares. He reached his hands into the air and tried to grasp the hope. He became determined to reach for it.  
_

_Then, he saw it. A dark and horrible thing, flew out from the gap and screeching its high pitch tone. He shuttered in panic as more of the black shapes emerged, a swarm of them, hundred of them, flapping and clawing, tearing at his clothing and hair. _

_Bats, he realized, feeling himself, his personality and very being, change as his lips parted and his released screams that made him shrink and dissolve in the swarm. He thrashed his arms trying to fight them off as his own voice shrieked and shrieked until fear was the only thing that remained...  
_

_Bats flew up and disappeared into the sunlight. The shrieking stopped. He laid atop the of the dirt, gasping and sobbing._

_"Bruce,"_

_He heard a familiar and comforting voice call his name above the well. He lifted his gaze and stared up at his father wearing climbing harness and descending lower with his hand reaching out... _

Bruce gasped for a refreshing breath and flicked his eyes open, the chill of the cave rushed over his lips. He was drifting in and out of unconscious. The metallic taste of the hallucinogen he breathed in seeped down his perched throat. He placed his gloved down on his face. Instantly his eyes widened. "My mask," he said with a shaky exhale, feeling his jaw drop hard. He became fully alert and watched her scourge over his work benches. "You know that I'm..."

Selina walked over to him, bent her head down and silenced with a soft kiss. She pulled away. "Don't worry I know how to keep a secret." She heard the movement coming from a tunnel shaft. "I think you can handle this situation." She turned atop of her heels, flipping her back. "See you around, Mr. Wayne." He was quick with reaction and grabbed her thin wrist. She cocked her head and glared at him. "What?" she asked, slightly growling at him.

Bruce lifted himself off the medical table, he caressed his smooth lips over her mouth and kissed her. When he pulled away he said, "Don't worry I have a photographic memory."

She smirked.

They deepened into a smoldering interlock, she encircled her arms around his waist and unlatched his belt, slipping it off carefully from the nomex material of his suit. She suddenly head the dumb-waiter descend and broke her lips slowly away. "I think that's my cue to leave." She laid one last kiss on his lips and pulled swiftly away from hims with his belt wrapped over her hips. "Have a good evening, Mr. Wayne."

Just like a cat prowling through an empty alley, she had vanished into the shadows.

A small satisfied smile played on the corners of his lips, as he flattened his body back down on the table, and placed his hands on his waist. He raised his eyebrows as a dumbfounded look became etched over his refined features. He narrowed his blood-shot hazel eyes and stared at the area were his utility belt was supposed to be placed. "Next time," he slurred out, his eyes growing heavy with fog. "I'll be unmasking her."


	6. Chapter 6 : Infliltration at Wayne Manor

**Chapter 6**

**Infiltration at Wayne Manor **

* * *

The first Bruce awoke the next morning, if was very brief. He saw blurry images of needle going into his forearm, and listened to Lucius Fox's voice echoing in his ears after that everything he remembered beyond that became a vogue blur to his subconscious. He drifted into another mindless state, feeling the chills of the fever he was fighting against course through his body as he shivered underneath the blankets.

"Mr. Wayne, are you awake?" Fox asked in a calm voice, taking another sample of blood from a vein. "I'm taking another blood sample for the preparations of the antidote compounds I'm developing at Wayne Enterprises. Everything for the antidote will be stable in the next few hours, Mr. Wayne."

The second time Bruce woke up, he slowly felt the piercing needle of a syringe enter his bloodstream as a substance started flowing into his veins. He flickered his eyes to adjust to the sunlight back then slowly felt the exhaustion of his alinement take told of his body as he released a shallow breath, and forced himself to drift into a unconscious state.

The third time he awoke, Bruce tried to keep himself alert as he lifted his hand and stared vanilla coloring of his skin tone as he shifted his hazy eyes to Alfred sitting in a chair by the bedside, snoring, making up for the lost sleep he'd suffered during those two nights where he'd sat up, worrying watching and waiting. The butler's chin was resting over his rising chest, his wrinkled face relaxed and firm as Bruce looked at the half empty cup of Earl Grey tea on the nightstand and listened to the patters of rain hitting the window panes of the bedroom. That's all he remembered. The sound of rain drops had lulled him back into a steady slumber.

_He laid against the dirt floor, motionless and frightened as he felt the chill of his fear creep over his trembling lips. He blinked, trying to adjust to the shafts of sunlight streaming over him as he heard the voice of his father call his name above him._

_"Bruce,"_

_He rubbed his bruised arm and stared up at Thomas Wayne descending from the light and into the darkness with his hand reaching out._

_"It's okay, Bruce." Thomas smiled warmly to his injured son, as he smacked his feet onto the dirt ground and knelt down beside Bruce, placing his gentle hand on the boy's arm as he quickly scanned his dark blue eyes over the wounded limb. "It's going to alright." He stroked his hand softly through his son's hair. "Come on, let's get you out of here."  
_

_ Bruce nodded lightly and felt the soothing warm of his father's strong arms enveloping around his trembling body and felt himself being lifted, and raised, out of the darkness into the sunlight as his father carried him past the greenhouse, toward the stone steps of the mansion, Alfred was trotting alongside. Little Rachel walked next to them, sobbing. Her mother, Miss Dodson wrapped her small fair skinned body into a comforting embrace.  
_

_"Will you be needing an ambulance, Master Wayne?" Alfred asked, his concerned winter blue eyes narrowing at Bruce's wounded arm._

_"We have everything we need," Thomas replied walking up the steps, Bruce resting his head against his father's chest and listened to the steady heart beat. "I'll take the X-rays later."_

_Alfred nodded, "Very good, sir." He looked with weary eyes at the young boy enclose in the arms of his employer and said with a gentle voice, "Took quite a fall didn't we. Master Bruce?"  
_

_Bruce narrowed his eyes feeling slightly embarrassed at his current deposition.._

_"And why do you fall, Bruce?" Thomas asked looking down at Bruce furrowed his eyebrows. "So we can learn to pick ourselves up."_

_Smiling, Bruce held his hand out to Rachel. When she moved next to him, he gently placed the arrow head in her open palm and whispered in a hoarse voice, "Finders keepers." Looking up at Bruce, a small smile crossed over Rachel's tearstained face.  
_

_A few minutes, Bruce was in the room his father called "the office," begin cradled in his mother's soft and warm arms while his father, sleeves rolled up and his stethoscope hanging from his neck, examined Bruce's bruises and scrapes before applying pressure on the boy's right arm. Bruce clenched his eyes, feeling the salty tears roll down his pale cheeks as he started to sob, but only a little. _

_"There, there," Martha Wayne cooed her son with a reassuring voice ."Everything is all right, Bruce. Everything thing is fine. Nothing like this will ever happen to you again, I promise." She pressed a soft press on his forehead, and slowly rocked him against her chest.  
_

_"Those bats were really scary," Bruce pulled his head back from his mother's chest and looked up at her with a bewildered look as the tears were becoming a strong flow against his skin as he rammed his face back into his mother, feeling his tugging of his heart's strings. "Mommy, they attacked me..." his voice strained as the vivid images of the swarm of bats clotted through his mind, his pulse was elevating as a cold sweat began to seep out of his pores.  
_

_Martha threaded her long fingers through his mop of chocolate waves, "It's okay, Bruce." She pressed her arms around him tighter. "I'm here." Bruce placed his hand flat on his mother's heart and felt the beat through his finger tips as his father applied antiseptic on his cuts. He winced, feeling the string penetrate through his skin.  
_

_Bruce lifted his leaky hazel eyes, staring into his mother soft hazel-green ones. He swallowed a lump on his throat and touched a golden strand of her hair. "You'll never leave me, Mommy?" he asked with a soft child like voice. "You'll always be with me."  
_

_"Always, Bruce." she whispered quietly as she swiped the tears from his eyes as watched her husband message is hands over their sons' arm. She nuzzled her nose with Bruce and then brushed the bangs off his forehead and gave him a soft kiss on his brow. She pulled her lips away and narrowed a tender gaze at him before placing her hand on the area of his heart. "If you ever need me I'll always with you..."  
_

_Bruce creased his eyebrows, "Where Mommy?" he asked with a questionable voice._

_"Right there," Martha replied, padding her hand on his heart. "That's where you can always find me, Bruce. No matter if you can't see. I'll be here...with you." She shifted her eyes to Thomas and smile loving at him. "We'll always be there no matter what, darling."  
_

Bruce slipped his eyes opened slightly as he became much self- aware. He was still flushing out the toxin, the stench of sickening sweat made his stomach churn as he felt the tugging over his eyelids. He squinted at the dim light of the lamps and sniffed the air as he inhaled a familiar scent as he felt a pair of eyes watching him within the shadows of the room-a low flamboyant voice engulf inside the drums of his ears.

"How are you feeling, Mr. Wayne?"

Bruce blinked as he laid there, he narrowed his eyes down with blush of rose over his cheeks as he stared at his half-naked body, his slack-sweated abdomen gleamed in the glow of light as he bare torso rose and he released a collection of shallow breathing. He stared at the slender figure of a woman sitting on the dresser with long legs crossed and sharp heels shimmering in the darkness that veiled over her, he settled his dusky eyes on the red teardrop shaped lips playing out a smirk to him as she clutched his utility belt in her gloved hand.

It took him a few moments to register that this wasn't a dream. She was real, all that dangerous, elusive and bewitching beauty was staring back at him with a devilish glint in her dark eyes behind the slits of her half-faced mask. His limbs felt shaky and there was tightness around his wrists. He tried to bring his arms around over his head but instead he felt the pull against his skin. His brows furrowed as slight discomfort became etched on his features. He lifted his eyes up and noticed a black leather bullwhip holding his wrists into place as a knot was tied against the Italian designed headboard. He gritted his teeth, clenching his saw and stared her gently drop the belt on the floorboards.

"Oops," She said with a devilish smirk, rolling her shoulder slightly. She sauntered to the bedroom door and turned the lock on the knob.

Bruce glared with flares burning into his hazel eyes, he tried to wiggle his hand through the whip, as he breathed out a frustrated grunt. He was vulnerable, bounded and totally at her mercy. He sealed his lips with a scowl, knowing that she had been waiting for him. She had the nerve to enter his home, break through the security system and somehow elude the watchful eyes of Alfred Pennyworth. He felt his blood broil as she nipped her heels in the hard wood flooring, wiggling her the curves of her hips as she inched to the foot of the bed and stared down at him with a big, red, satisfied beautiful smile and gingerly crawled onto the mattress with an untamed gaze of hunger gleaming in her dark, coffee-colored that told him she was desiring something of his in those unpredictable moments.

"Listen," Bruce hoarsely said as he looked up. His lips formed a straight line in the dim light as his eyes were locked onto her, and she was moving closer , stretching her lithe body. He swallowed the constricting lump he had been holding, and a frustrated sigh escaped his lips.

"What?" she asked, grinning, "Aren't you happy to see me, Mr. Wayne?" She twirled a long gloved finger over the groves on his compacted stomach, the chill of the night breeze rushed over her as she lifted her hand to her chest and tapped a finger on her zipper causing Bruce to shiver involuntarily.

He stiffened his jaw and looked at her, an unnerving scowl shadowing his handsome features. "What are you doing here?" He questioned. "Why did you tie me up with a whip?"

She lowered herself over him, pressing her stomach against his as she pulled her gloves off and discarded them to the floor. Her hand reached to his mouth and softly she brushed his lower lip with her dainty finger, relishing the smooth rippled surface of his skin.

Bruce peered at her with knitted eyebrows as shook her hair and allowed the thick mass of dark auburn to tumble over her shapely shoulders, and he raked his eyes over her face, she wore little makeup on her cheeks, dark eyeliner to give her the smoky eye effect and crimson lipstick. Her skin glowed in the obscurity of the bedroom, he stared at the slightest imperfections -a few fading battle scars around her jaw and under her chin, small peppering flaws of brown freckles but nothing to take away from her cream -colored skin, nothing to make her less beautiful. He felt the urges starting to devour his foggy mind.

"I'm still waiting for your answer," he implied, watching her lips part to release a light breath that touched over his sweat-dotted brow. "You infiltrated my personal space, you better have a good reason for coming here, uninvited."

"I like to do things unexpectedly," she purred swaying her finger over his thin upper lip. "Call it my feline nature." She removed a switchblade from a compartment of her belt and cut through the knot that bounded his hands, his wrists snapped free, then he pulled her closer against him with his arms enclosed around her tensed back, then he kissed her and felt his eyes close as his nostrils inhaled the scent of her around him. She reacted to his caress fervently as a small moan skipped from her lips. His chest elevated against her. She tasted him, and she pulled away and smirked.

"So what are you going to be with me, Mr. Wayne?" she asked, tracing her bottom lip with her tongue. "Arrest me, send your butler after me or are you are going something dangerous?"

"Maybe all three," he mumbled against her skin. "Breaking and entering is a crime, after all."

She rolled her eyes. "You're one to talk." She moved her palms against his chest, feeling the firmness of his muscles on her fingertips. "Or you have another opinion for my intrusion?"

Bruce bit down into his lip. "Depends."

Her lips curled into a mischievous grin. "Maybe I can persuade you about letting me go?" She arched up an eyebrow. "After all I did save your life."

"True," he replied, with a hint of a growl. "I'll let you this time. But next you won't be so lucky."

She grinned. "Neither will you, Mr. Wayne." She said in a sultry voice, as she pressed a moist kiss on his lips, and broke away but with a swift move, he enclosed his arms over her body and pulled her tighter against him as he kissed her on the throat, and smirk with delight as he felt the vibrations underneath her as he felt her pulse. She pressed soft kisses on his chest pectorals before slipping away from him, he manged to claim her lips once more before she straightened herself off the bed and grabbed her gloves.

Bruce looked at her with a neutral expression written on his face, he rubbed his lips together as she casually walked to the opened window. He watched her with an impressive stare, vault onto the dresser, taking one last glance at him and blowing him a kiss.

"See you around, Mr. Wayne." she said teasing before flipping backwards off the dresser and out the window. Bruce slowly reeled himself up and swiped away the stain of lipstick with the back of his hand. He quickly staggered to his as he heard Alfred's footfalls echoing against the marble stairs. With a swift he, he lumbered to the door, unlocked it and cradled his arm over his stomach as he felt a wave of nausea whirl inside of him. Clamping his mouth shut with his hand , he retreated out into the hall.

"Master Wayne," Alfred ejected, stepping out-of-the-way, and watching the young man race to the bathroom. "Sir, is everything alright..."

Before Bruce could answer his butler's question, he entered the bathroom and slammed the door.

Alfred arched up one white eyebrow, listening to the young billionaire spew the contents of his stomachs out beyond the closed bathroom door. "I guess not."


	7. Chapter 7 : Birthday Surprise

**Chapter 7**

**Birthday Surprise**

* * *

Afternoon sunlight online Bruce's still body as he was slowly awakening from a restless slumber, his arm was crooked under his head as he blinked his heavy-lidded eyes, trying to adjust to the brightness of the room and heard the annoying sound of a spoon stirring with a glass of water. He slowly shifted his eyes and found Alfred sitting in a chair by the bedside holding a glass of water with fizzing substance mixing into the cold liquid. He released a faint breath, "How long was I out?" he asked, almost not recognizing the hoarse rasp that grinds the walls of his parched throat.

"Two days," Alfred replied, extending the glass to him. "It's your birthday. Many happy returns."

Bruce slowly lifted his head and took the glass, quickly draining the contents that settled his sour stomach. "I felt these effects before." he explained, slightly wincing his brow. "This was different. More potent. It was some kind of weaponized hallucinogen administered in aerosol form." He took another gulp and swallowed.

"You have been hanging out at the wrong clubs, Mr. Wayne." said a familiar voice, Bruce almost choked as dumbfounded expression crept over his flushed features. He shifted his eyes; Lucius Fox was sitting near the window, his legs crossed, an amused little smile on his aging face.

"I called Mr. Fox when your condition worsened after last night." Alfred explained.

"I analyzed your blood, isolating the receptor compounds and protein-based catalysts," Fox said, looking at the groggy billionaire.

"Am I going to understand to all that," Bruce asked, in strained voice.

"No, I just want you to know how hard it was. Bottom line, I synthesized an antidote."

"Could you make more?"

"Planning on gassing yourself again, Mr. Wayne?"

Bruce lightly smiled at him, "You know how it is, Mr. Fox. You're out on the town, looking for kicks...someone's passing around the weaponized hallucinogens."

Fox straighten and chuckled in a low tone. 'I'll bring you what I have, but the antidote should serve as an inoculation for now. He nodded to his longtime friend, "Alfred, always a pleasure."

Alfred returned the nodded and replied, "Lucius." He waited for Fox to exit the bedroom and turned his wintery blue colored eyes at his sickly looking charge. "I think it would be wise for you to get bit more rest before the party, Master Wayne." He rose from the chaired and pulled the curtains closed. "I think a few more hours of rest will do the trick, I'll be down stairs if you need me."

Bruce nodded, handed the glass and then pulled the covers over his head and drifted back to sleep.

* * *

After two more hours of sleeping, Bruce finally rose from his drenched sheets, and then staggered to the bathroom, the sickening scent of gasoline linger inside his pores and seeped into his greasy mass of unkempt hair, he peeled his white T-shirt off his tired body and sleep pants and decided that a steamy shower was in order.

There was still the numbness in his limbs, but the hot drops water hitting his feverish skin as it circulated his blood. He rested his palms flat on the marble tile, allowing the water to cascade down his muscular planes of his back as he tastes the warm beads of water drip inside his mouth. He bent his head down, closing his eyes as the stench of gasoline dissolved into the blanket of steam before he levered himself up with an expensive imported body wash and released a deep exhale as the chills of the prolonged fever finally eased against the water. His mind was becoming consumed by thoughts of her. Every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was her delicious dark ones staring back at him behind the domino mask.

_In his mind, she was there-standing underneath the gushing water with her long hair drenched and shapely curves pinned to the cool marble wall, her face was bare as he could see her true beauty, pale skin and large dark brown eyes as she smiled stupidly at him before pressing a soft kiss against his mouth. Her hands gripped his wet muscles before they fisted in his wet hair where his lips melted into a savory kiss. He was running his hand down her back, feeling the firmness of the her strength against his fingertips as he devoured her mouth with his hunger and pressed hardened against her slender frame as he crushed her into him and listened to her whisper his name against his jaw._

Bruce's eyes flew open and he ran his finger over his wet lip, still tasting her kiss on his brim flesh. Then he leaned forward and twisted the knobs until the water stopped and he opened the glass door and stepped on the towel lying over the ceramic flooring, he quickly toweled dried his body and pulled on his father's dark blue robe when he heard the doorbell echo through the upper level of the mansion. He emerged out of the bathroom and went to the top of the stairs and narrowed his bloodshot eyes down at the front door, Alfred dressed in a white pressed shirt and dark vest was standing in the doorway talking to Rachel Dawes.

"Are you sure you won't come in?" Alfred was asking. "The other guests will be arriving shortly."

Bruce descended the steps and called out her name, "Rachel?" She lifted her head and looked up at from with a frown on her delicate features, as her teal blue eyes surveyed over his tousled dark hair, red puffy eyes ashen skin tone and the unsteadiness of his feet.

"Looks like someone's been burning the candle at both ends." Rachel said. "It must've been quite an occasion."

Bruce stepped down, Alfred walked passed him handing him a small wrapped gift. "Well, it is my birthday." He replied, with a gentle and yet prideful smile.

"I know." she nodded simply. "I was just dropping off your present."

"You've got better plans," he asked softly, creasing his brow as he lips slightly curved up to matched the look of concern in his hooded gaze.

"My boss as been missing for two days. Meaning, in this town, I should probably starting looking at the bottom of river." She answered him with tension in her jaw and her eyes narrowed down to the floor as she kept her fearful thoughts of finding her boss's body floating in the cold waters of Gotham City concealed from him.

"Rachel," he said with softness in his eyes, he sealed his lips when he heard a ringing sound coming from Rachel's purse.

"Excuse me," she said, a breath of frustration escaped from her lips. She pulled out a mobile phone and spoke into. "Rachel Dawes." Then there was a pause. "What? Who authorized that? Get Crane there right now and don't take no for an answer. And call Dr. Lehmann-we'll need our own assessment on the judge's desk by morning." She suffed the phone back into her purse. She stiffened her jaw, her eyes were burning with anger as she shifted her posture, trying to gather mental information in her mind.

"What's wrong?" Bruce asked.

"It's Falcone. Dr. Crane moved him to Arkham Asylum on suicide watch." she explained with a breathless sigh, looking directly into his eyes.

"You're going to Arkham now? It's in the Narrows, Rachel." He warned, his hazel eyes gleamed with a crisp warmth as he bore a deep gaze into hers.

"You enjoy you're party, Bruce." she said with a smile, "Someone of us have work to do."

"You be careful," he replied, lips forming into a tender and affectionate smile.

She turned on her heel and said, "Happy Birthday, Bruce. I hope it's a night you won't forget." She gave him one last smile before she raced down the walk, got into her blue Honda and sped away out of the driveway. Bruce narrowed his eyes to the gift hand in his palm and ripped the paper, took the lid off the small bow and inside was a small note written in black marker "finders keepers." He looked down at the small object that he hadn't seen since he was eight years old. An arrowhead head lay on a cushion of white tissue paper. He felt his lips form into a smug smile as he lifted his gaze and stared at Rachel's car speeding through the Wayne estate's front gates, quickly he raced up the stairs and headed toward the ballroom.

When he met Alfred, attending to a dessert table, he nodded at his butler and said. "I have an errand to run. I won't be long, Alfred."As he moved to the hallway, the English gentlemen paced after him.

"But, Master Wayne, the guests will be arriving shortly."

"Keep them happy until I arrive. Tell them that joke you know." He said, padding Alfred's forearm, with a warm grin stretched cross his lips as he walked away from his worried butler.

* * *

Bruce casually strode into the study and paced to the grand piano in the corner of the room, tapping his fingers on the ivory keys. He hit four notes and a large, ornate mirror of the bookshelf swung forward to reveal a secret passage behind it. This was the second entry to the cave that Alfred's brilliant mind devised. He passed through it and descended on the stone steps of a staircase. His bare feet arrive at the landing and a spiral staircase with a metal dumbwaiter at its center. He stepped onto the dumbwaiter and tugged a lever. The dumbwaiter plummeted down and, with a rattling of the chains, halted to a stop at the bottom dirt floor. When he stepped out, he felt the dampness of the rocky cavern seep through his slightly feverish bones.**  
**

He quickly went to an oak engraved cabinet, opened the doors and stared at the custom graphite cowl resting on a shelf with it's dark hollow eyes seemed to be glaring at him like a phantom. He pulled out his father's robe and his light blue pajama shirt, revealing his bruised muscle mass in the dim light shining for his well-defined from from the hanging industrial lamps above the cave's ceiling and then he suddenly sensed a familiar presence waiting in the dingy shadows.

As quietly and swiftly as he could, he melted into the umbra behind the cabinet, feeling a higher levels adrenaline gush through his heated veins. He steadied his breath, keeping his smoldering hazel eyes locked in the shadows around him and he crouched down low, his fingers digging into the dirt, as an uneasy feeling was unsettling over that he couldn't shake off. There was an intruder in the cave.

"Happy birthday, Mr. Wayne."

Bruce's eyes widened, his head shot up in shock at the low tone of a familiar voice, which seemed to echo around him. _What the hell, _He thought, keeping his posture rigid as he straightened from the floor and silently emerged out of the shadows, his eyes shifting over every corner of the cave.

"Don't be shy," the female intruder said with sultry laugh, and he stalked forward, keeping his senses alert, he peered at the curved shadow in the dim light projecting off of a nearby by the wall. He was closing on her like a predator , practically upon her. He heard her laugh once more. "Don't tell me you're still dazed from that fever." He swiped his dangling tendrils off of his brow as he moved closer into her territory.

He halted in his steps, glared at her slender form arched against the medical table, her sharp heels were crossed in an elegant and formal position and her straight auburn hair was draped over her shoulders while her inferred goggles were flipped up to resemble car ears

Bruce crossed his arms over his graven chest, feeling anger and frustration swell inside of him as he stood motionless and unfazed, absorbing her entire appearance as she curved her red full lips into a snarky smirk and flashed her dark coffee-colored eyes with dangerous flares welled inside her shadowy gaze underneath her half faced mask. He pursed his lips into a sourly firm line feeling violated by her brazen action of invading the secured chamber that he utilized as his dark protected hideaway.

He stiffened his jaw, he knew it couldn't afford any distractions not when Rachel's life could be threatened by Johnathan Crane. He kept his distance and his emotions heavily guarded, watching her rubbed her upper and bottom lips together as she closed her eyes for a few seconds and rubbed her slender frame against the cold steel of the table behind her. He ran his hand through his messy strands of hair and released a frustrated grunt into the drafty air, he was breathing fire.

He took two steps forward, anticipating her every movement as he towered over her and looked down into her elusive dark eyes gleaming with unpredictable delight. He kept his lips firm and eyes still as her fall back atop of the table, her gloved hands moving slowly her stomach and throw her head back carelessly, smiling devilishly at him with a glint twinkling in her eye. She was clad fully in her skin-tight cat suit, the zipper was half unzip showing a slight hint of cleavage and a lace black bra barely covering the slope of her fleshly breasts. He felt lightheaded, she latched her curled finger at the metal zipper and slowly made it move down in seductive manner and he was trapped in the moment with her, instantly feeling his legs carry him closer as her flawless beauty was dominating all his senses. He was thankful that the dim light of cave concealed his face, as he felt her enticement shroud over every fiber of his body.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, his voice gruffer than he intended. "I let you go last time. This time you won't be so lucky." He was furious with this woman breaking into the cave and infiltrating his hidden territory with careless composer. She was a stray cat deeming anything as her own without even thinking about the results of consequence.

"Well. You don't look happy to see me, Mr. Wayne." She made a performance of stretching her lean arms over her head and arching the curve of her back slightly up. "I thought I would give you my birthday present early seeing that you don't have much time on your hands."

"Listen," he growled, his torso filling with warm air. "I don't know how you manage to decode the encryption of the caves security system, but I don't have time for games right now. Someone very close to me is in trouble. I'm not risking her life just because you decided to play cat and mouse." A lethal scowl crept over his lips, as she purposely makes the zipper of her suit roll down lower to her abdomen, waiting for him to make his mark after he finished his brooding. She wanted to domesticate him while he was licking his fierce internal wounds. She could see his vulnerability, light dizziness and slight discomfort on his bruised stomach.

She swiped her tongue over her bottom lip, her gestures and movements are purposeful, and her intentions are clear as she raised her hand and delicately brushed her fingertips along the side of her neck, her lips clasped as she fluttered her eyes behind the slits of her mask. She felt his heavy eyes watching her in a way that a hunter would eyes his prey but this time she was to be the huntress and he was her prey. She gazed at his sculptured body carefully and calculated, waiting for him to stalk closer. He does, gingerly move a few inches closer to her domain, he looked down at him with a questionable glare of dark tepid fire.

"I promise I won't bite." she purred, rising her chest, he mounted his feet in front of the table, his knees rubbed against the cold steel as he leaned forward and kissed her lips with an impacting moist kiss, setting the flames inside her core, as he plunged in deeper, sampling the taste of her as he closed his eyes, feeling the flavor of her mouth melt against his tongue as he indulges the savory moisture. A deep moan slithered down her throat, but with a twist of deadly movement, she lifted her knee and kneed him directly into the groin. He pulled away with stricken confusion etched on his deep-set brow as she just smiled brightly at him.

"Why did you do that," He seethed through his clenched teeth. His breath was heavy and beads of sweat dripped over the groves of his chest. She bit her bottom lips and shrugged her shoulders.

"Now I never said I was going to easy on you, handsome." She purred, reeling herself up and enclosed her arms around his shoulders, imprisoning him within her dangerous allure, and then she slipped her tongue inside the ridges on the roof of his mouth, mingled with his reluctant slide of exploration, gasping the nourishing taste of him, a fiery combustion of hot octane flavor. When he tried to pull away to catch a breath, her kissed him harder making his sense feel dull as she swayed her tongue over his jagged teeth, nearly choking him with senseless pleasure.

When he pulled away, he stayed trapped within her bewitchment, his eyes glossy and there was a vacant expression etched over his refined features. His lips roamed down the side of her neck, nipping almost roughly desperately at the area of her jugular vein,. feeling the vibrations of her pulse singe his lips. She felt mindless as she leaned back, moaning for another taste of him. He savored the purity of her skin, his eyes were closed shut as he allowed himself to indulged deeper into her flesh before he moved his lips back to hers and devastated her senses with another empowering kiss, squeezing her jaw with his firm fingers as he lowered himself over her body, aligning his chest with her breasts.

The full weight of his body settled against her, crushing her slender frame as he slipped his tongue into the cavern of her mouth, entwining with her own as they created sloshing noises with their untamed hunger. He kissed her long the slope of her jaw, running his soft lips over her faint freckles before he reluctantly pulled his lips away. He was breathless and drenched and looked down at her with dusky eyes.

"I have to go," he said, his tone deep and husky. " I can't allow..."

"I guess we'll see each other another time," she whispered, twirling her long gloved finger over the center of his glazed chest. "Maybe sooner than expected."

He nodded and dropped a kiss on her lips one last time, she inhaled the slack-sweet scent of him as her fingers threaded his damp hair, he broke away broke away and raced to the cabinet and lifted up the cowl off the shelf, listening to her zip up her cat suit as he removed his belt off a hook. "If you want I'm free later on after the..." His voice trailed as he turned back to stare at her.

But she was gone.

He arched up one eyebrow up and noticed a small box wrapped with black paper resting on a nearby work bench. He quickly walked over, lifted the gift up and ripped the paper, and stared at the object black cat figurine, an amused smiled played on his lips as he read the handwritten note underneath.

_Something to remember me by, handsome._

_ XOXO _

_-The Cat._

Bruce shook his head and placed the small figurine in a compartment of his belt before finishing putting on the nomnex body armor on his bat suit as he said in a low growl, "The Cat."


	8. Chapter 8 : Chimes of Arkham: Part 1

**Chapter 8  
**

**Chimes of Arkham : Part 1  
**

* * *

Selina stripped her goggles off the moment she crossed the threshold of her Old Town apartment, a prime example of urban decay and social negligence, her stiletto heels clicked on the dusty floorboards as she sauntered to the vanity and pulled out the stool, resting her hands flatly on the scuffed up wood as a compressed sigh escape from her lips. Her dark coffee colored eyes peered at her refection in the mirror, it had been a long time since she stare at her youthful visage. Dark fierce orbs that captured all the shadow around her, pale skin that gleamed in the faintness cast of light and full lips that were shaped as red teardrops. She was elegance beautiful but also unpredictably dangerous.

She closed her eyes for a few moments, listening to the sounds of night from Gotham's slums and the echoes of ships docking out of East End quarter harbors. Those noises had always given her a sense of peace along with the clashing blare of thunder rolling in the distance. She could always sense a storm brewing before it would hit. Her roommate called it her sixth sense, but she thought it was ridiculous and only believe in the realistic truth of having survival skills to dodge another bullet and live another day without becoming a lifeless slab in the autopsy room.

Tonight, everything was quiet. Too quiet. It unnerved her because it always calm before the storm.

Rolling her eyes, she swiftly moved to the closet space bathroom, flicked on the switch canvassing a muted orange on her skin as the bulb staring to dim. She leaned over the sink, turning the tarnished taps of the cold and hot water, while resting her feverish brow against the coolness of glass the of medicine cabinets mirror. The glass and ceramic drove soothing waves into her scorching veins as she cupped running water into her hand and cleansed the grime from the dingy streets off her waxen skin as she felt the water soak deep into her pore and then applied a fresh scented soap in circular motion on her tensed overlarge features and sharp cheekbones.

After rinsing the layer of soap off her face, she dabbed a towel over her drenched skin as a light breeze from the crack of the shower window caressed over her rigid frame.

Slowly, she blinked, and took a few deep breaths and quickly observed her ghostly visage in the mirror and placed her finger over her lips still feeling the lingering warmth of his kiss latched on her red flesh. "There's no chance in hell," she stormed under her breath. "It could work behind us." She watched her semblance change into something spiteful and deadly as the depth of her eyes became darker shades of black under the glow of light. She back away from the bathroom and flatten her back against the frame of the threshold as her gaze wondered around the clutter space filled with piles of rich and casual clothing, books, paintings and a makeshift bed.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flicker of a dark shadow moving near the window.

_This night, keeps on getting more interesting. _She thought darkly to herself, pulling out her handgun from the strap wrapped around her thigh and aiming it at the direction of the intruder, as her finger curled on the trigger and muscles tensed as she glared sharply at the window.

Just when she was about to the trigger, a soft little sound in the darkness stopped her.

"Meow."

Selina narrowed her eyes and stared at the slender black cat sitting on the floor in front of her, long tail swaying and piercing golden eyes glaring directly at her as she crouched down steady on her knees and curved her lips into a smile. She reached out her hand and stroked her fingers along her cat's fur, with a gentle touch as the feline responded with a simple nudge of her head to Selina's knee.

"Did we have fun tonight, precious?" she purred, looking at the diamond chain necklace around her cat Isis's neck. She had trained her pet to steal since she first discovered the cat tucked away in a dumpster as a frail and whimpering abandon kitten, being emphatic of felines she took in the small creature and taught her everything about stealing from apartments and high secured stores.

"I guess you did." she said, pulling off the necklace and inspecting the glimmering diamonds as her cat released muffled sounds against her leg. "That's my girl." She concluded, straightening to her feet and stuffing the necklace into a drawer.

Suddenly she heard the tracking LBS on her mobile phone resting on the one of her bookshelf. With a swift movement of her hands, she grabbed the phone and pressed the screen displaying a location fix that she had planted in the small cat statue she had given to Bruce Wayne back in the bat cave.

"So the party is at Arkham," she purred quietly, twisting her lips into a devilish smirk. "I think I'm in the mood of crashing it, tonight." She sauntered to her vanity and lifted up her goggles attached to her black domino mask and eased it carefully over her sleek hair and then she grabbed her bullwhip and looked down at Isis, "Try not to make a mess."

With that, she pulled down her goggles over her eyes and slipped into the shadows of the stairwell.

* * *

Darkness cast over the restless waters of Gotham Bay, Rachel Dawes guided her Honda off the bridge and into the smoky clusters of the streets of the Narrows. She drove slowly, trying to avoid the many potholes and the broken glass. Light was virtually non-existent, the were a few streetlamps mounted on the some corners that gave off little light as she noticed some of the bulbs were smashed or burnt out. The moon was just smudge behind the wispy clouds forming over it. Rachel stopped in front of the sprawling architectural Gothic monstrosity that housed the some said _infamous_-Arkham Asylum: high windowless walls, steep roofs and foreboding sense of dread seeping from the brick structure.. She shuddered at the thought of entering this nightmare, but parked her car and walked through the front door way.

A pair of watchful hazel eyes stared at her entering the building from behind the graphite slits, Batman was perched on a high point of the roof, his body crouched as his cape billowed in the sinister wind creeping from behind him. Once he heard the door slam, he jumped to another perch and kept his eyes settled on Rachel speaking to a security guard sitting behind a desk, and a minute later a white-clad nurse with red hair escorted her into the patients wing.

He leap to another window ledge, his gloved fingers gripped the crumbling brick as he saw Rachel standing in front of Carmine Falcone's cell, her teal blue eyes glared at the mumbling crime boss as Dr. Johnathan Crane approaching Rachel from the other end of the gated corridor. He pressed the radio transmitter receiver in his cowl's sharp ear and tuned in the frequency as he eavesdropped on their conversation.

"Ms. Dawes," Crane said, with slight irritation in his voice, "this is most irregular. I've nothing to add to the report of Mr. Falcone's condition that I filed with the judge."

Rachel met his gaze and said, "Well, I have questions about your report."

"Such as," Crane replied in the tone of the unjustly victimized.

"Such as, isn't it convenient for a fifty-two-year-old man with no history of a mental illness to suddenly have a complete psychotic breakdown just when he's about to be indicted?"

Crace gesture a hand to a wire-reinforced window that looked in in a cell. His feverish blue eyes stared at Falcone strapped to a raised bed, staring blankly at the bright ceiling light, and his lips trembling. "As you can see for yourself, Ms. Dawes...there's nothing delusional about his symptoms."

"What's he saying?" Rachel asked, with direct tone in her voice.

"Scarecrow," Falcone mumbled out, tossing his head against the frame of the bed. "Scarecrow."

Rachel stiffened her jaw, and turned her heated gaze back to Crane, "What's Scarecrow?"

Crane raised the frame of his glasses over the bridge of his nose as he responded to her question in the manner of a professor lecturing a particularly dense class. "Patients suffering delusional episodes often their focus their paranoia onto an external tormentor, usually one conforming to Jungian archetypes. In this care, a scarecrow."

Outside Batman gritted his teeth, "What's your tormentor, Crane." He growled in a low tone, keeping his dark eyes locked on Rachel and the sudden change of semblance on Crane's pale features.

Rachel looked at Falcone, arching her eyebrow, "He's drugged?"

Crane simply nodded. "Psychopharmacology is my primary field. I'm a strong advocate. Outside, he was a giant. In here, only the mind can grant you power."

"You enjoy the reversal."

"I respect the mind's power over the body. It's why I do what I do-ultimately, I'm just trying to help."

Rachel scuffed his words and clenched her jaw, "I do what I do to put scum like Falcone behind bars, not in therapy." She said, letting her throat become raw with anger. She started moving to the elevator. "I want my own psychiatric consultant to have full access to Falcone, including bloodwork to find out exactly what you have him on."

"First thing tomorrow, then." Crane replied, standing behind her with a lethal sneer crossed over his lips.

"Tonight, I've already paged Dr. Lehmann." she stepped into the elevator and he followed her.

Batman jumped gracefully down to the paved ground, his knees absorb the shock as he raced to the other side of the building, towards the basement corridor.


	9. Chapter 9 : Chimes of Arkham : Part 2

**Chapter 9  
**

**Chimes of Arkham : Part 2**

* * *

Rachel shuddered to the sinister coldness expelling from Crane's lanky form, she tucked her jacket closer to her chest and suddenly felt her throat constrict with a knot of dread. _You be careful, Rachel. _She heard Bruce's voice echoed through the back of her mind as she regained her strong composure and watched Crane place a key into the elevator control panel, they descend-three floors, she guessed- and then the doors again opened, she stepped out and followed Crane into a long, dim corridor. She shivered, both because the place was chilly due to the lack of heat from the bent ducks above the ceiling and the deathly chills of haunting fright-a horror of dripping pipes releasing murky water into forming puddles on the cement and grotesque shadows.

She felt her heart racing against the walls of her chest, as she trailed behind Crane, listening to the rumbles of creaks and moans that made her soul twist as glow of dimming bulbs caress over her pale features as she swiftly walked into another narrow corner, she shoulder grazing over a scuff and moldy cement wall..._If they scare you, they win..._ Her thoughts played in her mind as she kept her teal blue colored eyes sharp while feeling her harden emotions start to strip off her.

Crane paused at a door marked HYDROTHERAPY and pushed it open. Rachel blinked to adjust her sight to the brightness of the place, a vast room with dozens of stainless-steel tables on which were scales of aluminum kegs. Workers dressed in muted orange suits -asylum inmates?-were busy transferring white powder from the kegs to cloth sacks. Two of the workers were pouring the contents of powder from a barrel into a large hole in the floor. She peered at the hole and listened to the gushing sound of running water, she creased her brow and sharpened her focus on the rusted pipes underneath the cement crevice.

One of the workers cold dark eyes stared not at Rachel, but _through _her. She was certain she had him somewhere and her breath caught as she recognized the murderer Victor Zsasz. She took a few steps back as a horrified panic rose in her veins.

"This is where we make the medicine," Crane said with a slight hiss in his voice. "Perhaps you should have some. Clear your head."

He was talking to no one.

He released a long exhaled and stiffened his jaw, listening to Rachel's heel boots echo through the hallway. He rolled his serpent blue eyes at the door and hasted down the hallway. "She run but she can't hide from...fear."

In the corridor, Rachel stumbled against the cement: _Damn boots..._

She contained running toward the elevator. Pressing the button fanatically, until the doors slid open. She quickly stepped inside and pressed the button on the panel marked 2.

Nothing happened. "Come on," she said in a breathless sob, jabbing at the button again and again. Nothing. She hit all the other buttons. Still nothing. She leaned her back against the wall, gathering the breath that was fading in her lungs as her slender body trembled. She clamped her eyes shut and took in heavy gulps of air, trying to ease the panic raging inside of her.

The doors slid open, someone stood inches away from her, wearing a tattered looking scarecrow mask. Her eyes widened as she felt stricken by her breath. She felt the blood drain from her cheeks as she gasped out. "Crane?"

"Let me help, Ms Dawes." he said. He reached toward her and a small puff of white gas shot from his sleeve. The back of Rachel's throat stung and she gasped loudly. She coughed into her fist and when she looked up-

_...crawling worms and maggots slithered and feel from the stitching of the mask._

Rachel stifled an ear piercing scream, "What's happening?" her voice was draining as she lost her balance and stumbled to the floor. Two inmates entered the elevator and dragged her limp body back into the corridor.

"Bring Ms. Dawes back into the hydrotherapy room." Crane ordered. "Her torture as only just began."

Within minutes, the two inmates dragged her back to the hydrotherapy room and pushed her onto one of the tables. Crane hovered over her, watching her head toss from side to side. She was trashing violently, her pale lips moving rapidly as she whimpered beneath his devilish gaze. He grabbed her face between his thumb and forefinger and forced her to stare at him.

_...worm crawling..._

"Who knows you're here?" he asked in a threatening inhumane voice. _"Who knows?"_

Rachel wrenched her head away and screamed. "No!"

Suddenly they were in darkness. Someone had killed the lights.

Crane pulled off his mask, swiping his hand through his drenched raven locks and said, in an awed voice. "He's here."

"Who?" an armed thug asked.

Crane scanned his eyes over the rafters of the ceiling, an amusing smile crossed his lips. "The Batman."

"He's here." The thug replied. "What do we do?"

"What does anyone do when a prowler comes around? Call the police."

"You want the cops here?"

Crane nodded, glazing his tongue over his sneering lips. "At this point. they can't stop us. But this...Batman has a talent for disruption. Force him outside, and the police will take him down."

Crane was fumbling around in one of the table's drawers. He located a battery-operated doctor's light used to examine inmates glossy eyes if they accidentally got powder in them. Turning it on, he swept the thin beam around at the inmates. "Get them out of here. And find the emergency power breaker. I need light."

"What about her?" one of the others said, gesturing to Rachel.

"She's gone." Crane said with a hint of malice in his voice as his lips curled into a satisfied smile. "I gave her a concentrated dose. Her mind can only take so much."

"What about the Batman?" They things they say about him... I heard he can disappear."

Crane lifted to the doctor's light to the rafters, his eyes were daring the movement in the shadow. "We'll find out, won't we? Call the police."

* * *

Outside in the back alleyway a few blocks near the asylum, Selina quickly dismounted off the motorcycle she recently stolen and hot wired from a drive bar's parking lot. She tossed the helmet to the ground, cracking the visor at impact on the littered filled pavement and brushed her long auburn locks off her shoulder as she trudged through piles of broken glass and urban decay that grew larger everyday thanks to the negligence of city health officials. It only got worse as she silently roamed narrowed spaced back alley way, heading towards the grounds of Arkham. She cringed staring at homeless families clustered around trash cans in the shadowy spaces that had been turned into makeshift oil drums. Some used the fire as warmth and others actually used them to cook over, heating whatever food they managed to steal or discover from trash heaps and dumpsters.

Some of the hooded men huddled over the fire eyed her curiously as she sauntered pass them, keeping her dark eyes hard and cold to their lustful glowering, while others recognized her as someone who could help them with spare change. Indeed a young Lantio dark haired child beckoned a hoarse voice to Selina from the umbra and implored her to help find her mother and held out a fruit cupped in her shaky hand. This child is victim of lost of innocence, a frail life that experiences the ugly side of life every day with so little to survive.

"You keep it," Selina said with a half smile. "I'll do what I can." She promised, stepping closer and pulling out a few bills from a compartment of her belt and placed it in the child's cold hands. "Go buy yourself some real food, kid." The girl looked at her with big dark eyes and nodded with a smile. Just as Selina started to walk away, the girl called out after her.

"Pretty lady."

Her voice is fragile and barely audible, but Selina turned on her heel and looked at her once again. Her teary eyes gleam in the glow of fire. She raced to her the young brunette and placed the apple in Selina's hand and whispered. "Thank you." she sobbed with all the gratitude her little body could muster up. Selina crouched down to her level and looked at her tenderly in the eyes.

"You're welcome, princess." Selina replied, looking at the praying eyes locked on the girl. She straightened from the ground and stared at them with fierce dark eyes as she squared her jaw and spun on her heel, heading toward the shadow of the asylum where she knows Batman is waiting to strike in the shadows. She slipped into the darkness, slipping on her domino mask and vanished before the child's eyes.

* * *

During his training period at the Tibetan monastery, Bruce had learned to make use of the darkness-any kind of darkness. He could conceal himself in the shadows or, if necessary and conditions were right, hide in plain sight. None of that was necessary here. This unseemly monstrosity of a building seemed to radiate its _own _darkness and there were no lights on the grounds to dispel it. And the sliver of the misty moon was no problem, either. An elephant have tiptoed inside without being seen. But Bruce had played it safe and cut the power lines anyway. He knew, from his earlier research, that no surgery was done this at night and there were no artificial life-support systems in the asylum, so he was probably not endangering anyone. Probably. He couldn't be certain not now. Later he promised himself , he would find ways of being _certain_ in situations like this.

When he rubbed his chapped lips together to moisten them, he tasted Selina's lingering kiss, still sweet and savory as when she crashed her lips onto his mouth. He shook off the feelings clotting his thoughts and descended from the rafters of the sub-basement. He hung up side down , his cape enclosed over his body as his full weight was supported by the grapnel wire, his hazel eyes scanned the darken area of the floor. He cloaked his lips with his cape, giving him the appearing of a hanging bat waiting to strike at his prey as the hum of a generator echoed through the vast space making a few of the light flicker back on, as his eyes captured the faint glow of a nearby bulb.

He dropped and crouched down at a steel beam, his eyes narrowed down as he stared at Rachel's trembling body. _Crane's dosed her with the fear toxin... _He barred his teeth together, and shifted his eyes at Crane's gunmen positioned on the stairs and under the tables. _  
_

The gunmen waited, but not for long. Someone groaned in the shadows. The sound of fluttering came from above in the rafters.

"Shoot!" Crane commanded.

The other gunman fired upward blindly. A blackness quickly descended on him and he was quiet. There was the sound of a muffled blow across the room and Crane knew that the third man had taken down. Then another muffled blow and a gun going off as a man yelp as a bullet lodged into his foot and Crane knew he was alone.

He crouched behind a table, applying his mask as he watched the dark shadow descend from the stairs, quickly dismantling an automatic and throwing the pieces against a wall. Batman reached out a hand to grab Rachel but Crane lunged at him from behind. "Ready for another dose of fear...Batman?"

Batman was quick with reflex, grabbed him, spun him around, and rippled off his mask. Crane's arm was pinned between his torso and Batman, his against his own chin. He felt compressed air being triggered and realized, a half second before a puff of white smoke blew into his sweaty face, what was about to happen.

"Ready for a dose of your own medicine, doctor," Batman growled. He released Crane and the doctor stumbled to the ground. Batman hauled him up by his collar and ground. His gloved hands pressed tight over Crane's jaw as he scowled looking directly into the raven haired doctor's trembling blue eyes. "What have you been doing here?"

Crane nearly choked, his rattling eyes stared at the black monstrous bat...demon holding him in a choke hold as he struggled against the toxin coursing through his blood system. He looked into the dark smoldering eyes leaking out liquid tar and watched the black fangs of the monster drool out tar as it drizzled over its black skin. "Crane," the demon bellowed with a haunting growl its hollow eyes bore a frightening gaze as the doctor stared at white orbs surrounded by darkness. "Who are you working for?"

As Crane tried to answer the demon was turning more in a bat...no longer a devilish face of a man...but a grotesque bat with sharp black wings piercing out of its shoulders. His breath came in sharp, staccato gasps. Finally , he manged to say, "Ras... Ras...Ras al Ghul."

Batman set his jaw down hard and pulled Crane closer. "Ras al Ghul is dead, Crane..._Who are you working for?"_

Crane opened his mouth wider, releasing choking sounds rubbing against the walls of his throat. For almost a minute after staring at the bat monster interrogating him, he simply stared, and continued to gasp. Then his breath become normal and he said pleasantly, "Dr. Crane isn't here right, but it you'd like to make an appointment..."

Batman shifted his eyes hearing the wails of sirens outside, he seethed in a frustrated grunt and bashed Crane's head against the table. The doctor crashed to the floor, landing flat on his face. Batman paced to the table where Rachel's limp body was lying and he looked down at her with solemn gaze before gently lifting her off the steel and against his chest.

A loud _something _came from outside the window and Batman realized that he was hearing someone speak, distorted by a bullhorn and echoing against the old building. The sound came again and he was able to discern the words;

_"BATMAN. PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS AND SURRENDER. YOUR ARE SURROUNDED."_

Bruce almost rolled his eyes behind the slits of the graphite cowl as he carried Rachel out of the room and into the dark corridor, not realizing that a dark pair of artful eyes underneath a mask were watching him from the shadows, behind a corner wall as he passed by, with his long cape dragging against the floor. His eyes fell to pale complexion of his childhood friend and he whispered softly, "Hold on, Rachel." He felt her heart beat pounding against his chest, as he tried fight against the shattering emotions swelling inside of him. "Just hold on."


	10. Chapter 10 : Calling of the Bats

**Chapter 10**

**Calling of the Bats**

* * *

Inside the narrow halls, Selina silently walked past the empty grated cells, her three-inched silhouettes sloshed in the murky puddles forming on the cracked cement as the trickling sound of water leaky from the bent and rusted pipes kept her hyperware senses active as she eluded the beady dark eyes of scourging sewer rats crawling in the shadows and vanishing underneath the contortion of pipes.

Two things Selina was sure of : First , that the drugged female victim was close to Batman, and second that she was being watched by menacing eyes concealed in the dark corridors.

She felt a icy chill brushed over her lips as she heard minascious foot falls slosh in the puddles. Her slender body grew tense and rigid, and she immediately knew that threatening danger was approaching as she took a few steps back and ducked underneath a broken heating pipe, her black skin-tight suit mixed with the shades of the darkness as she crouched down lower, keeping her eyes sharp as her instincts were screaming as the shadow of a tall figure projected on the ground and she quickly retrieved her handgun from her belt's hostler and clutched it tightly against her gloved fingers.

"I can smell you're scent," an unpleasant voice bellowed, as Selina nearly gagged at the stench wafting from her aggressors lanky body. "You're body will be delicious to taste..."

She rolled her eyes under her mask, and curled her finger on the trigger. She regained her strength and stepped out of her hiding place, starting directly into the hollow eyes of an insane inmate, licking his slimy tongue of his pale lips as he lunged closer to her and she aimed the gun at his groin area. "Sorry handsome," she purred with a her lips twisting into a slaying smirk. "I'm not to have to cancel your dinner arrangements for the evening." She pulled the trigger and watched the bullet make it's point of entry directly into his left inner thigh as he yelped in pain and crashed to the floor, his shaky hand pressing over the bloody wound.

"Argh...you bitch," his voice slurred, as she circled around him with a dangerous glint in her eye and smirked defiantly at him blowing the smoke out of the barrel of her gun. She bent her knees and looked into his glazed green eyes.

"How many more of you crazies are roaming the asylum?" she growled, her eyes were turning darker as she placed the gun to his temple. "Better give me a number because yours are dropping pretty fast."

"There's no one else." He swallowed as a line of sweat formed on his brow. "Doctor Crane only wanted me...he promised that he make all my nightmares go away." He started to laugh uncontrollably and than sob as blood dripped out of the corner of his mouth.

"Crane," Selina arched one eyebrow underneath her mask and she pressed the gun harder against his skull. "What's the doctor's game plan, handsome?"

"I don't know anything..." He sputtered out with a heavy gulp of air. "Only that he wants to kill the... bat freak."

Selina gritted her teeth," Now why would he want to kill the Batman?" she hissed in low tone. "I guessing your hiding something very valuable in there." She tapped the nose of her gun against his brow. "If I were you...I would start taking about the doctor's arrangements for Batman funeral unless you me to make yours now?"

"All I know...is things will happen once the bridges are raised and medicine rises." he winced as his eyes were slowly dimming from the excruciating pain raging in his thigh muscle.

"What the hell does that mean?" Selina snarled, stiffening up her jaw. "What medicine?"

The inmates swallowed harshly before answering, "Something that will everyone crazy!" he laughed with a deadly sneer crossed over his pale face. Selina rolled her eyes and kicked him into the head, watching him roll on his back with a yelp as she causally walked down the hall.

* * *

Outside, the flashing of LD red and blue light of dozen of police cruisers threw grotesque, reddish shadows on the brick tinged walls of the asylum. Behind the opened doors of each car stood an uniformed cop. some aiming sidearms, others with shotguns.

Detective Arnold Flass stood next to a African-American man in a captain's uniform, who was holding a bullhorn. "What are you waiting for?" he demanded with a light scowl crossed over his grizzly features.

"Backup," the captain said with an even tone.

"Backup?" Flass repeated in a sour voice.

"Listen, Flass, the Batman's in there. SWAT'S on the way. But if you want to go in now...Hey, I'll be right behind you."

"Well, if SWAT's on the way..."

Jim Gordon parked his car at the perimeter of the police cordon, grabbed a flashlight from the glove department , and hurried to Flass. "I heard about it on the radio," he said, adjusting his framed glasses on the bridge of his nose. "What's going on in here?"

"Got a call, said it was from inside the nuthouse." Flass replied with gruffness in his voice. "Some guy said Batman was loose inside there."

"And you're just standing around, waiting?" Gordon ejected as he pushed past Flass and went through the front entrance of the asylum as a large armored van screeched to a halt and a half-dozen SWAT officers, carrying rifles with bright scope lights attached and wearing flak jackets and helmets, spilled onto the pavement.

Once inside, Gordon felt his way along the grimy wall. He had seen the arrival of the SWAT team and wanted no part of it. Those guys had their orders : apprehend, subdue. use excessive force if necessary. Gordon's mission was different : find out what the hell was happening and leave the bullets inside the barrel of the gun.

He heard shouts and heavy footfalls behind him: the SWAT officers, probably were spreading out, keeping in contact with lapel radios. _Do I have a chance to find the Batman before they did?_ he thought, looking at the dim-lighted steps of the stairway. _Well, I guess I'll soon find out._

In the brief bursts of red light from the police cruisers that were coming through the windows, Gordon slowly climbed up the stairs with his sidearm steady in his hand- and then he grabbed by darkness, feeling arm around his waist and pulled off of his feet, rocketing upward. He stopped and placed gently on a landing, a gloved hand clamped over his mouth.

"Gordon," a raspy breath grazed over his ear, he immediately recognized the voice. He turned his neck around and stared into the devilish cowl of Batman, fiery hazel orbs bore an intense gaze into his eyes as the commotion of the SWAT team below jarred his attention. Rifles and light aimed ahead of them, voices shouted as the officers began to the steps. "Okay, we go higher."

In the ambient glow from the SWAT lights, Gordon saw Batman aim some kind of grapple gun at the rafters. Batman again circled Gordon's wait with his arm and triggered the gun. There was a faint hiss and again Gordon was shooting upward, the only difference was Batman hung upside with his cape covering his body as they quickly ascended and jolted to a stop.

Somehow, Gordon had managed to hold the gun in the clutch of his hand during his ascent. He swept it's around him and that he was in some of attic. Batman grasped Gordon's wrist and gently pushed it away down; Gordon struggled against the constricting hold.

"No guns," Batman bellowed in a lowly whisper. He narrowed his dark eyes on Rachel Dawes' trembling body, she was curled on the floor, her eyes wide and her lips moving soundlessly.

"What happened to her?" Gordon whispered as concern became etched on his brow.

"Crane poisoned her with a psychotropic hallucinogen," Batman said in a heavy tone. "A panic- inducing toxin."

Gordon placed his hand gently on Rachel's forehead, her body temperature was rising. 'Let me get her down to the medics."

Batman shook his head slightly before growling in an even baritone, "They can't help her, but I can. I need to get her the antidote before the damage becomes permanent."

"How long does she have?"

"Not long." Batman replied with a hushed voice, looking down at Rachel. "Get her downstairs and meet me in the alley on the Narrows side." He lifted his heel and pressed it as he looked deeply at Gordon with his piercing eyes behind the slits of the cowl, revealing pink tinges of flesh underneath the smear black makeup and he parted his lips, "There's something you need to know in case something happens to me. Crane has been smuggled his toxin hidden within Falcone's drugs."

"Why?" Gordon asked with a shaky voice. "What was he planning?"

"I don't know." Batman answered instantly.

"Was he working for Falcone?"

"No. He mention someone else. Someone worse." Batman placed his hand gently behind Rachel's neck to support her head as he help Gordon lifted her off the ground. "Use the stairs and stick the shadows." He turned his body to the ledge and looked down the well of the spiraling staircase.

Gordon lifted up Rachel in his arms as he listened to an odd sound coming from beyond the asylum's walls: a _screech_ melded with what sounded like wings flapping. "What is that?"

"Backup." Batman growled back as he kept his eyes locked on the lower levels.

* * *

It only took Selina a few moments of exploring lower level the eerie complex before she located the hydrotherapy room. She kicked the door opened with her heel and clicked her heels on the stairs while flipping her goggles down for night vision. Some inmate manged to spill large puddles of water on the step during the hassle of emptying the room of the workers.

She storm down the steps and quickly removed her heels, then detached the bullwhip her the side of her belt while listening to the faint mumble of words coming from a dark corner near a stainless-steel table. She walked stealthily towards the table, blending in the dim light that captured over the surface of her black suit as the shrieks and incoherent words echoed throughout the room. She lifted her goggles up and glared down at the trembling doctor curled into a tight spot behind the table with sweat drenched his lanky body.

"Well,well. This is a coincidence, doctor. " she purred in a low sultry tone.

Crane's glossy blue eyes snapped up and widened at the sight of a slender figure in black with flames of crimson fire burning in it's eyes as claws retracted outward and started to reach for him as it stood in of quivering form. "No...stay away from me." He shuddered his words and tired to shy away his eyes from the new tormentor.

Selina stood motionless with her arms crossed and a snarky smirked twisted on her red lips as she looked down at the raven-haired doctor with a hint of malice glinting in her eyes.

"Wh-do you want with me," Crane sputtered, clenching his eyes a few seconds before looking up at Selina warily.

Selina crouched down and one of her hands started to reach out for him. "I'm curious about this medicine you created doctor." she answered, looking at the white powder peppered on his suit. "Why don't you tell me your little plan before I scratch your eyes out."

Crane shook his head and spoke with heavy lung fills of air, "It's too late. Circumstances in Gotham are about to change once he arrives."

Selina arched an eyebrow under her mask, "He?" Crane started to stand on his wobbly legs, but Selina shoved him back to the floor with her foot. She straightened out her whip and snapped it for intimation as she wrapped it around his thin neck and listened to him yelp in surprise. "Now you're going to tell everything here right now. And you going to say every single detail of what you have to say."

"I'm not afraid of you-"

Selina laughed, pulling the whip tighter around his throat. "I'm not scary enough for you, doctor? No, I guess I'm not like the Batman. But I can be something he's not..."

Crane gulped down for a moment before his eyes widened even further and he gasped out a shaky exhale , "What?"

"A devil." Selina admitted with a sly smirk and curled her finger under his sweaty chin. "Now this try this again shall we handsome? And I want the truth."

He nodded and swallowed, " Gotham's water supply has been polluted with a deadly compound of ... my fear toxin. It can't be stopped...nothing can prevent it from infecting the people of Gotham. Nothing."

Selina clenched her jaw. "You're planning to poison everybody in this city with your drugs." She hissed. "And you're not the real threat that is about to take over the streets. It's someone else, a stranger."

Crane's skin completion suddenly appeared to be visibly pale as the effects of the compound he inhaled were starting to create feverish symptoms in his blood stream. "He plans to kill everyone...including the Batman...he might kill the masked freak first. He's been a thorn in our side for too long...he needs to be extinguished."

"Not going to happen," Selina growled, unraveling the whip off his neck and pulled him closer to her lips as her breath ghosted over his mouth.

"You can't save him," Crane laughed and then he spat. " Even if you wanted to."

Selina shrugged. "Sometimes we don't get what we want, doctor. We get what we need." She smirked giving him a quick and cold kiss on his lips and back away only a few inches as she stared directly in his gray-blue colored eyes with a smirk as she clenched her hand into a fist, and suddenly the complex was disturbed by high-piercing screeches.

"What the hell is that?" Crane blared out, his eyes rattling as the sound was getting closer. Selina's smirked faded into a deadly sneer. "It sounds like...bats."

Selina's smile returned. "They must be attracted to your stench, doctor." She aimed her fist at the level of his jaw. "Let's not disappoint them, Crane." She punched Crane into the jaw bone, hard and watched him stumble to the floor with a loud whimper. The sting in her knuckles only lingered for a few moments as her lips curved into a smile to express the delicious satisfaction that was washing over her, having now officially give the infamous Doctor Johnathan Crane a piece of her mind , with a good and nice, hard swing in for good measure.

"Have a good evening, Doctor Crane." she spat out before heading back to the stairs.

* * *

Outside the clouds had dissipated and a full moon shone in the sky. That's how Detective Flass first saw them-wiggly shape crossing the moon. There were only a few at first. Flass and some of the cops noticed them but then ignored them.

"Just a few stinkin bats," Flass bellowed to the two officers standing next to him, looking at the structure of Arkham. "We expected in a creepy place like this..." His voice drifted as he peered at the number of the flying mammals, there was more than a few, a lot more-hundreds. no thousands...Maybe even more? They flowed in an unending stream from the north, so many they almost concealed the moon. They flew straight for the building and found the entrances and flew inside, shattering the glass of the windows.

"It's his doing," Flass yelled, ducking behind a cruiser. " Can't be a coincidence, not bats. What kind of thing is he?"

Inside the asylum, a black mass, flapping and screeching, flooded into the stairwell, past the SWAT team who fumbled and covered their faces with their forearms, and soared upward.

Batman straighten up on the ledge as his stood in the midst of the swarm. The of younger self at the bottom of well flitted across his mind for only a second, but the second memory had long ago lost its power to frightened him. He had originally doubted that would really work, this summoning of the bats that lived beneath the structures of Wayne Manor. He had planned to test it later, but there was no for that now. He was surrounded by proof of that, yes, the device in boot's heel performed as expected.

He took a deep breath, and narrowed his eyes down at the misty abyss he was preparing to descend into, he waited and listened to the scream of the SWAT officers and Batman knew he needed them occupied for a minute or two more. He pulled the echolocation device loose from his boot and dropped it down the stairwell. Immediately, the swarm of the bats veered and plummeted downward, following the device, and the SWAT officers scattered, Batman jumped into the middle of the stairwell, almost invisible amid the black swarm of his childhood fears, and opened his cloak into its wing configuration. He smacked his boots hard, feeling the shock of the impact in his knees and swayed to get his balance, and as he toward the inmates' quarters, refolded the cloak over his shoulders.

He was no standing in a green wall tinged corridor with barred doors on either side. He raced down the the cement flooring as the bats flew in every direction of him as he passed the cells and watched the inmates stare him down with fear welled into their eyes. He took a mini mine from his belt and threw it at the nearest door lock. A second later there was an explosion and the door fell smoking to the floor. Batman climbed over the door and entered quickly into the cell.

He nodded to the two inmates sitting on their bed, blankly staring at him and he growled, "Excuse me." He threw a second mine at the barred window. "I cover your faces if I were you," He told them with a raspy voice. There was another explosion and the bars clattered onto the ground outside.

Batman took three running steps, leaped, and dove through the smoking frame of the window.

* * *

Once outside the asylum complex, Batman made a sharp corner toward the north side alley, his molted hazel eyes were locked on the exit when he heard something in the shadows. Gathering his breath from vaulting out the window, he turned around and glared sharply at the shadows of the brick wall. He sensed a familiar presence and caught a whiff of a beautiful scent blanketing around him and before he could take another step forward, something tight wrapped around his torso. "What?" he growled out with a surprised tone, struggling as his arms were pressed tightly over his heaving chest and barred his teeth together, seething out his anger. "Untie me!"

"Now why would I want to do that, Mr. Wayne." a familiar spiteful purr jarred his attention to the corner of the wall. He shifted his burning hazel orbs at the slender figure waiting patiently in the shadows as he caught a glimpse of a her red lipstick shining in the caress of the moonlight.

"You?" he replied with a bewildered tone. "How did you..." He bit his tongue as she swayed her sleek legs and curvy hips toward him. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the bullwhip enclosed over his broad chest. "This isn't a game..." Selina circled around him, her gloved hands running over his the wrinkles of his cape, and he jerked his body trying to break free from the leather restraint against his body before he concluded with a loud frustrated grunt. "why are you doing this?"

She stepped in front of him and casually said, "Because I have valuable information that you might need to hear, Mr. Wayne."

He felt his jaw tightening underneath the graphite shell of the cowl, and when she took a few more steps closer, he allowed to drink up the sight of his alluring lover in the same skin-tight black suit that hugged perfectly at the curves of her hips and the half faced mask that hid her beautiful features. He was becoming distraction by her bewitching charm that he fought the reason why he was angry at her and didn't notice that she was mirroring the same gesture of admiring his menacing body.

"What information?" he replied, using his growl of a disguised voice that was deep and fierce. He stiffened his exposed chin and looked deeply at her. "I'm in a hurry, so make it fast." He bellowed, displaying his slight over bit of his jagged canines.

Listening to his powerful voice made her eyes grew heavier and lips darker, a shadow of a satisfied smirk crossed over her pale features, she inched closer until her breasts nearly touched his chest and rubbed her finger slowly over his bottom lip. "Since its your birthday, I'll generous tonight." She smacked her lips together and bore a smoky gaze into his eyes. "Crane has poisoned Gotham's water supply with his drugs...making everyone in this city crazy as the inmates here." she swallowed. "That's only the half of the details."

"He's working someone worse than any criminal in this city," Batman replied. "Did you find out when he's going to disperse the toxin?"

"He didn't say much." she purred, his eyes flickered down as he watched her other hand run over the bat symbol of his chest , then higher up, until her leather fingertips brushed over the exposed skin of his jaw."Only that he plans to kill you first."

"This is all the information Crane gave you?" Batman grumbled under his breath, his thoughts shifted back to Gordon waiting in the alleyway with Rachel. "Or is there something else you want to say?"

"All I can say is whatever the doctor and his unknown friend are planning," she purred, dropping her hand and taking a step back. Then she unraveled the whip off his body and shook her head. "You don't stand a chance of beating these guys." She grabbed her upper arm with her hand and narrowed her eyes lower to the ground as he stepped closer to her.

"With your help I might," his husked voice rushed breathily against her cheek. "It's your choice."

She lifted her dark gaze and nipped her bottom lip, "I still think trust is an issue between us."

"True," he rasped out tenderly with a hint of Bruce Wayne's voice piercing out of his lips. "I'm not asking you to trust me." He placed his hand on her shoulder. "I'm asking you to help me save Gotham."

Selina's eyes narrowed. "You would want me to help you?" she gritted her teeth. " Even through I'm everything you stand against?"

He paused for a moment and looked into the depth of her eyes. "You have compassion toward strangers. Yes, you're a criminal but you're not a monster." He pursed his lips together and lifted up his hand cupping it over her face. "You're something far greater than that, Cat."

"Cat?" she repeated with a flare in her eyes.

He nodded slight feeling the graphite mask tightly constrict over his neck, "I figured that your costume that essence of feline theatrically."

Selina chewed on her lip for a second as she thought about her choice. "Alright I'll help you." she paused. "Don't expect me to follow the rules."

"Don't worry," he ran his gloved fingers softly through her hair and whispered."I won't." He bent his head forward as his soft lips barely touched and breathed over her mouth and crushed her lips with a hard kiss as both of their tongued messaged together into their hot mouths and then he plunged deeper into the kiss, she shivered against him feeling his arms enclosed around her waist as a few bats few above them.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and felt the breath collapsing in her chest as she closed her eyes and melted into his embrace, feeling the fabric of his billowing cape graze over her back.

When he broke his lips away, she opened her eyes and only let him stare at her form a moment before she said in a rough exhale, "I thought you were in a hurry?"

He drove a eyes darkly into hers with a dumbfounded expression underneath his mask, "I don't what came over me." He pressed his hard forehead against hers and ghosted a breath over her lips. "Meet me back here at midnight."

"Don't keep me waiting," She pressed a gentle caress on his lips before slipping into the shadows of the asylum.


End file.
